HAMILTON, Dec 23: Pakistan coach Javed Miandad said he was surprised with the defensive tactics New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming used during the first Test.

“In my opinion, when you are defending 563 you have to attack more,” Miandad said after the match ended in a draw. “But he let our batsman settle down and we took the time and got past the follow-on mark (364).

“I feel the bowlers didn’t attack the stumps enough and they bowled a line just waiting for our batsmen to make a mistake and that was to our advantage, because at one stage we were 285 for six. They didn’t try to make our batsmen play.

“Had that been my team, I would have said we must attack and make sure the other team didn’t make the follow on.”

Fleming said the New Zealand players had discussed how they were going to use the 105 overs originally available to them but with that reduced to 75 overs because of morning drizzle, the equation had changed.

“We knew then that the only team that could win was Pakistan,” Fleming said. “And that played on us and there was a definite shift in our minds. We didn’t help the situation by playing some poor shots, but you’ve got to hand it to Sami after the way he bowled in the first innings.

“He had been poor, but he obviously got some confidence the way he batted yesterday and he came back today and showed how good a bowler he was.”

Sami said he could not get into rythm in the first innings. “I was getting no-balls all the time and it upset me,” he said. “Today it was much better. I was enjoying it much more.”—Reuters