Hassan Khan and Odean Smith Ignite Late Innings Surge

In the space of a dozen deliveries, a drifting innings found its heartbeat again.

Hassan Khan and Odean Smith, under a tightening grip from the spinners, punched back just when the fielding side looked ready to close the door. What had been a careful, almost reluctant rebuild suddenly snapped into something far more defiant.

The turning point came at the end of Khary Pierre’s spell. Pierre had been miserly, nagging away, offering almost nothing. Then, with the last ball of his quota, he finally missed his length. Hassan, on one knee, didn’t. A full ball on the stumps disappeared over deep midwicket, a 72-metre slog-sweep that sailed into the stands and ripped up the script of the over. From 2/21, Pierre walked off with fine figures, but the parting shot belonged entirely to the batter.

That blow did more than add six to the total. It loosened shoulders. It changed fields. It forced the bowling side to think again.

Smith, who had been nudging and feeling his way in, began to open up. When Mohammad Nabi tossed one up on off stump at 82.6kph, Smith simply leaned through the line and knocked it to long-off for a calm single. No slog, no panic, just a man settling into the closing act. Next ball of the over, Hassan chopped Nabi off the back foot to cover and set off. A moment’s hesitation almost cost them, the throw flying to the keeper’s end where Shai Hope whipped off the bails. Smith, though, had scrambled home. A direct hit and the story might have been very different. Nabi walked away with an excellent 4-0-25-1, but the batters had survived his last questions.

Survival quickly turned into intent.

Facing Pierre again, Hassan first worked him smartly. A full ball angling in at 87.2kph was inside-edged towards midwicket for two, then he cut with the spin past deep backward point for another brace. No risks, just busy, intelligent batting that kept the board ticking and denied the bowler any rhythm.

Smith then joined in, manufacturing room as Pierre attacked the stumps. A ball fired in at 84.3kph was deftly dinked to long-off for a single. Small numbers, but they kept the partnership moving and set the stage for what came next.

Imran Tahir, with all his experience, tried to break the stand with a change of pace and angle. He floated one up at 79.5kph, a full toss on the pads. Hassan went down for the sweep, miscued it, and could only drag a single to midwicket. A minor win for the bowler, but the strike rotated again.

Then Smith pounced.

Tahir overpitched outside off at 84.3kph, offering flight and width. Smith backed away, cleared his front leg and hammered it through extra cover for four, the kind of clean strike that sends a message to both bowler and dressing room. The pressure that had been building on the batters now swung back on the fielding side.

Tahir tried to respond by darting one in at 81.4kph, just outside leg stump. Smith walked across, looking to help it fine, but missed. No run, but he turned away with a cheeky smile, a man who knew he had already landed a telling blow in the over.

By the end of this passage, the numbers told only part of the story. Singles, twos, that one soaring six and a crunching four – together they shifted the tone of the innings. The spinners had controlled the middle overs; Hassan Khan and Odean Smith refused to let them dictate the finish.