Former Carlisle professional Justin Greaves has turned in his best bowling performance for the West Indies in the first Test against Pakistan.
The 32-year-old Barbadian took five wickets in an innings for the first time and they were gained in a remarkable spell of five successive maidens.
Those five consecutive wicket maidens had followed his first spell of six overs earlier in the day which went for 27 runs and he didn’t take a wicket.
Greaves is playing in his 17th Test and his excellent spell helped dismiss Pakistan for 282 after the West Indies had been bowled out for 311.
Interviewed at the end of the day’s play, Greaves said: “When I came on captain Roston Chase just said ‘continue to be disciplined in what you are doing’ and to see if I could get some wickets for the team.
“The ball nipped around and I got some reward. Anytime I get the ball in hand the team looks to me to be that solid player for them [and] try to dig us out of situations.
“To get five wickets for the first time in Test cricket, I’m really happy, but there’s still a lot of work to do in the game.”
The Test is being played at the Brian Lara Cricket Academy in Trinidad and former Pakistan captain Shan Masood was Greaves’ first wicket, clean bowled for 109.
He took out Aamer Jamal’s middle stump in his next over and then trapped Ali Usman lbw. He finished off by having Mohammed Rizwan and Mohammad Abbas both caught behind as Pakistan lost their last seven wickets for just 38 runs.
But it isn’t plain sailing for West Indies as they reached stumps on day three on 126-7 in their second innings with Greaves out for 20.
Greaves played for Carlisle in the Cumbria League in 2015 when he made a big impression, scoring just shy of 1,000 runs and taking more than 50 wickets in the North Lancs and Cumbria League.
An outstanding all-rounder, he actually scored 915 league runs at an average of 65.36 and took 55 league wickets at 11.76.
Captain at the time Marc Brown said: “He was a top order batter, a real threat with the ball and a great fielder.”
Carlisle brought him back to Edenside two years later when he hit 606 runs (average 67.33) and took 40 wickets (average 11.40).
