Lunch New Zealand 63 for 4 (Williamson 6*, Watling 0*, Yasir 4-31) trail Pakistan 418 for 5 dec (Sohail 147, Babar 127, Azhar 81, de Grandhomme 2-44) by 355 runs
Since the slow, hard grind had worked well for Pakistan, New Zealand decided to give it a shot, too. The initial results looked promising, but that was before Yasir Shah demonstrated the gulf in class between him and the opposition spinners. Three wickets in an over tore through New Zealand’s middle order after an opening stand that had looked to frustrate Pakistan in the morning session. The 50-run partnership between Jeet Raval and Tom Latham ended after Raval clumsily dragged the ball back onto the stumps off Yasir, but the real magic was yet to happen. In the penultimate over before lunch, the legspinner took complete control of the New Zealand innings, ripping through Tom Latham, Ross Taylor and Henry Nicholls at the stroke of lunch to leave New Zealand tottering at 63 for 4 at the break. As has been the case on each morning of this match so far, the runs were hard to come by, with only 39 scored in 20 overs.
The start on Monday had been delayed by a passing shower, and Pakistan began tightly thereafter, with only one run conceded in the first six overs. Even so, New Zealand looked up for the grind, and neither Mohammad Abbas nor Hasan Ali carried the penetrative threat to make a telling contribution before lunch. That honour belonged to Yasir Shah, who in an over of unplayable sorcery, turned the game on its head, perhaps changing its tempo altogether.
Three wickets in five balls rendered all of New Zealand’s initial work next to worthless. With Williamson and Latham at the crease and their side 61 for 1, Yasir drew Latham into a prod that Imam-ul-Haq scooped up at short leg. That opened up the opportunity to terrorise the new batsmen. Ross Taylor’s second delivery was a ball that evoked memories of Shane Warne to Mike Gatting. It pitched around middle and leg before spinning past the dead bat Taylor was offering to it to clatter into off stump. Henry Nicholls’ second delivery, too, was the stuff of nightmares, screaming through the gap between bat and pad to smash into middle stump.
Kane Williamson, who would have relished batting on a wicket this slow and in a situation calling for a marathon effort from him, could only watch from the other end, his task made harder with every second delivery. With BJ Watling already at the crease and only an out-of-form Colin de Grandhomme to follow before the tail begins to pad up, this particular stand will have to be Herculean if the visitors are to head into the final Test still clinging on to a series lead.
Source: ESPN Crickinfo