Lol they should have smashed this attack? Are you high? Seriously. With the likes of Logie, Carlisle Best and Hooper. You literally earlier said WI were vulnerable to swing at high pace.
That 90s series shows in case you missed it, that inspite of facing an all time great attack WI still found a way to draw the series and almost win it. Why? Because no matter the short comings of their batting, they had the bowlers to fight fire with fire.
In '86, when WI got bundled for 53, and people were saying wi was dusted. What happened? WI annihilated Pakistan in the very next test. And were on the verge of victory in the 3rd . My point? No matter what the batsmen did, wi bowlers kept them in the game and more often than not got them over the line.
I don't think West Indies were close to winning the last Test in the 90-91 series. It was a dead 5th day wicket with nothing in it for West Indian pace bowlers. Unless one knew how to reverse swing at high pace (which then West Indian bowlers didn't), they posed little threat to batsmen on that 5th day wicket. Pak still had 4 wickets left (with Imran, Wasim & Mojn among them).
And back then, batsmen batted time more easily than today's batsmen, so it wasn't like West Indies almost won the match.
BTW it was Lara's debut Test, and he played a very very important role in his debut innings.
West Indies were tottering at some 30-odd with 3 wickets down, when Lara joined Hooper and resurrected the West Indian innings with an almost 100 run partnership.
Hooper still rates that as his best innings ever because of Waqar's sheer pace & reverse swing. Hooper mentions he has never seen such swing before or after in a cricket match (and he pretty much insinuates ball-tampering by Pakistani fast bowlers which Pakistani umpires ignored).
Now second Test match in Trinidad in their 1988 series, which was also drawn - that was a match you could say West Indies almost won (Pak were 9 wickets down in their second innings at the end of that Test match). If Windies had managed to take the last wicket, they would have won. But then Pak too were just 30 runs away from successfully chasing down the required runs (given that it was a 5th day pitch - and an old ball).
In this match, Pak had issues with the Umpiring, because several close lbw appeals against Viv were turned down, and he went on to hit a crucial century.