Unlike Australia, the Kiwis despite having tasted a heavy defeat in the first Test, seem to have recovered remarkably to take a good measure of Pakistan bowling and keep them in the field all day on Monday to post a respectable total.

For them, once they beat Pakistan on the toss in the morning and rightly chose to make the first use of the wicket, things never looked anything but a smooth sailing as their captain Brendon McCullum and talented Tom Latham paced their way to a 77-run opening partnership.

They couldn’t have wished any better than to see the placid wicket as they pushed, nudged and at times took liberty even to hit the ball in the air.

It was a frustrating day for the Pakistan bowlers but the credit ought to be given to Latham, the century-maker of the first Test, who batted sensibly and serenely and without much blemish to show the way to his colleagues in facing the opposition spinners.

Not in the league of some of the most elegant left-handers that I have watched, like Garfield Sobers, Graeme Pollock or David Gower, he certainly though looks solid, safe and well in possession of shots which he plays with effortless ease on both sides of the wicket.

His second hundred on the trot itself tells the whole story of his quality as a batsman. His feat thus makes him only the third New Zealander besides Bert Sutcliffe and Glenn Turner to score two centuries in a row on Asian wickets and the youngest New Zealander in 35 years to have done so.

I watched his father Rod in the 1990s who bowled a bit and batted a bit to play more in limited over games than in Tests of which he played only four but did manage to score a Test hundred too; sort of a handyman who chipped in when needed.

Which obviously brings to mind the other two other father and son pairs from New Zealand, Walter and Richard Hadlee, Ken and Hamish Rutherford who did that before Tom and Rod Latham.

For Pakistan, Hanif Mohammad and Shoaib Mohammad, Nazar Mohammad and his son Mudassar Nazar have a similar record to show too.

But for the moment let us applaud Latham who undoubtedly was the feature of the day’s play on Monday as he walked off the field unbeaten having scored 137 in the end, promising that today could even be a lot more comforting if others in the dressing room follow the same trail as his, if and when he departs from the middle.

Published in Dawn, November 18th , 2014