When Roston Chase, the West Indies skipper handed the ball to his fourth seam bowling option for the latter’s second spell, Pakistan had a contrasting case in the crease. The scoreboard read 244/4 and their skipper Shan Masood was firmly set in the crease with his 109 runs beside his name. But at the other end, Salman Ali Agha’s dismissal earlier brought Mohammad Rizwan, the new batter. Pakistan’s first innings deficit was 67 then and with two quality batters in the crease and a couple of all-rounders to come, they were staring at a moderately good first innings lead.
Greaves’ task was to get the better of the composed Shan Masood. He set a packed off side field with point, cover point, cover and extra cover in place. The idea was to allure the Pakistan captain for expansive drives. But in three of the deliveries, the execution was wayward and Masood left those innocuous deliveries. Among the rest of the deliveries, he drove one to short cover, push drove one off the toe end of his bat and Greaves tinkered with his line a bit. He hit that three quarter length but much closer to the off stump and Masood couldn’t resist the temptation. He again went for the drive despite it being too close to the body and inside edged one onto his off pole.
In the next over, it took him just two balls to rattle Aamir Jamal’s middle stump with a full delivery. He followed the same line against Ali Usman but the latter played out the next three balls safely. Then Greaves dragged the length back to surprise Usman but got no cigar. He redeemed himself in the next over and went back to a three quarter length ball which skidded through at the off stump to trap Usman on his pads.
However, for Mohammad Rizwan, his tactics were a bit different. He greeted the keeper-batter with a full length ball in the 70th over, followed it with a length ball outside off and another three quarter length ball outside off. One thing was evident that Rizwan was reaching out for everything and then came the length ball that jagged away from him. A flat-footed Rizwan got nowhere close to the ball and outside edged to Shai Hope behind the stumps. Then in the 72nd over, a hard length delivery hoodwinked Mohammad Abbas and Greaves got a fifer!
The most magical thing about his five wicket maiden overs-spell was not the express pace, not getting some treacherous movement off the deck. But the disciplined line and length he bowled in tandem. When this asceticism gets married with some bowling intelligence, any bowler would have thrived and so has Justin Greaves!
The Barbadian batting all-rounder is enjoying his heydays in the purest format of the game. Had a forgetful debut in the down under series in 2024 but came back with a hundred vs Bangladesh later in that year. Since 2025 December, he has a fourth innings double hundred in his kitty against New Zealand at Christchurch, a dashing 180 vs Sri Lanka at North Sound and a game changing fifer against Pakistan at Tarouba. He is also only the second cricketer in Test history to pick up a Test fifer and score a fourth innings double hundred after his countrymate Kyle Mayers. He joined the elite list of fourth innings double centurions involving George Headley, John Edrich, Sunil Gavaskar, Gordon Greenidge, Nathan Astle and Mayers.
In the context of West Indies cricket, Greaves can be considered as a late bloomer. Making his First Class debut for Combined Campuses & Colleges in 2014, he took 10 years to make his Test debut. His First Class numbers barring Tests are not impressive as he scored just 2149 runs in 78 innings at an average of 32 with the bat. But he is a much superior bowler in the Caribbean domestics. He picked up four five-fers in that level in 74 bowling innings.
West Indies did not have many noticeable things in the Test format in the past few years. Series losses in tandem, cricketers zeroing on T20 cricket and becoming globetrotters for monetary benefit made the cricket board struggle fiercely to find relevance in international cricket. Players like Greaves are more in the mould of Kraigg Brathwaite. They didn’t find their skillset very agile to fit in the shorter formats, so they focussed on longer formats. Greaves just played 23 T20 games and 21 of them are in the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) where he made his debut in 2019.
When West Indies underwent a massive revamp and conducted psychometric analysis to choose Roston Chase as their skipper, an impactful all-rounder was the sine qua non. Greaves has not only fulfilled that but his presence as a fourth seamer has made the West Indies pace attack a threatening one. Kemar Roach, Shamar Joseph, Alzarri Joseph and Jayden Seales will be the frontrunners with the red cherry in hand and Greaves will take the ball after them. But if he delivers like the Tarouba Test, it would be supremely effective for the island nation.
For more news & updates, follow The Crichub on Instagram, X and YouTube
