Pakistan piles on runs in day-night Test

Dubai : Pakistan continued to accumulate runs on the second day of the first day-night Test against West Indies as opener Azhar Ali approached his double hundred in Dubai on Friday.

Ali was unbeaten on 194 at the break and with him debutant Babar Azam was 23 not out as West Indian bowlers once again were left to chase the pink ball on a flat Dubai stadium pitch.

Ali had another lifeline when Jermaine Blackwood dropped a regulation catch off spinner Roston Chase in the slip when the Pakistani opener was batting on 190.

Ali, also dropped on 38 by Leon Johsnon off paceman Miguel Cummins on Thursday, is six short of the double hundred after batting a marathon 487 minutes, hitting 17 boundaries and a six.

The lapse further hit the hapless West Indian bowling hard as they found no life out of the pitch and struggled against a formidable Pakistan batting line-up.

Resuming at 279-1 Pakistan - who reached 391 at tea - lost one wicket in the two-hour session when Asad Shafiq gave a return catch to leg-spinner Devendra Bishoo after scoring an attractive 67 for his ninth half-century in Tests.

Ali continued from where he left after resuming at 146, reaching his 150 with a single and then hit a six and a boundary off Chase to Pakistan past 350.

Shafiq also reached his 15th half-century with a well-timed boundary off Bishoo before losing out on a big score as he mistimed a straight drive. In all he hit nine boundaries.

Azam, inducted in the side after his three hundreds in as many matches in the 3-0 rout of the West Indies in the preceding one-day series, also looked solid, hitting two boundaries.

Australia and New Zealand played the first day-night Test in Adelaide last year, the first-ever in Test cricket's 140-year-old history.