Pakistan 133 and 50 for 1 (Azam 23*, Azhar 19*) trail New Zealand 200 (Raval 55, Nicholls 30, Rahat 3-62, Amir 3-43, Sohail 3-78) by 22 runs
Live scorecard and ball-by-ball details
Pakistan picked up seven wickets for 96 before lunch © AFP
Unlike the previous four sessions, the post-lunch passage on Saturday didn’t produce runs or wickets by the truckloads. Yet, nearly every ball was an event on a surface that offered just enough in terms of lateral movement. Pakistan lost Sami Aslam after nearly 18 overs of defiance, in which the opening pair added 21, but their slow progress in an attempt to wipe out a 67-run deficit meant New Zealand still held the edge at tea on day three of the first Test in Christchurch.
The first hour after lunch produced just 19 runs in 15 overs, with Tim Southee, who bowled five successive maidens in a row, troubling the batsmen by swerving the ball away quite late. This was a classic case of pressure built at one end resulting in a release at the other. Colin de Grandhomme, whose cameo 29 helped New Zealand drive into the lead, picked up his seventh wicket on debut when Aslam’s tentative push to a delivery that angled in and then deviated a little off the pitch resulted in a thin edge through to wicketkeeper BJ Watling.
Trent Boult, meanwhile, made optimum use of the crease through subtle change in angles from both over and around the wicket. All of this ensured the heat was well and truly on Pakistan despite them losing just one wicket in the session. They had crawled to 50 for 1 in 35 overs, having to wipe out 17 more to get into the positives.
The only surprise from Kane Williamson was in his use of Neil Wagner, who in the past has been used to hustle batsmen up with short deliveries. His introduction in the 22nd over to a packed cordon was perhaps an indication that the surface was far from being at its best for batting even as the ground was bathed in bright sunshine for most parts of the session. On his part, he was accurate and teased the batsmen with his lengths, pitching it up to set the batsmen up for drives they were happy to leave this time around, unlike in the first innings where they fell into the trap.
There was also a sighting of Todd Astle, deemed surplus to requirement in the first innings, with his legspin. Both batsmen looked largely comfortable and negotiated him off the pitch. In the two overs he delivered in his first spell, he conceded more runs than Southee did in eight relentless overs where the batsmen were put through a tough examination of their footwork against the moving ball.
That Pakistan were within touching distance of wiping out the deficit was largely due to Sohail Khan and Rahat Ali, who picked up seven wickets between them a New Zealand, resuming on 104 for 3, were bowled out for 200. None of the batsmen except de Grandhomme looked anywhere near comfortable.
Walking in after the overnight pair of Henry Nicholls and Jeet Raval, who top scored with 55, were dismissed inside four overs, de Grandhomme, who on Friday took the best figures by a New Zealander on debut, decided to attack. In hindsight, it wasn’t a bad approach; the swagger and nonchalance in his strokes, briefly threw Pakistan off guard.
He flicked his first ball in Tests, a juicy half-volley on the pads, into the midwicket boundary. Then there was a pull shot that he fetched from outside off, a drive with an opened bat face that split cover and point and a sashay down the pitch to flay a length ball past mid-off. He had raced away to 29 and looked good for more, before falling to a bouncer that got big on him as the top edge was taken by Rahat at fine leg. That triggered a lower order collapse that gave Pakistan a fighting chance, one they seem to have made use to leave the Test tantalizing poised.
Shashank Kishore is a senior sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo
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Source: ESPN Crickinfo