NZ on top as Pakistan face gruelling final day

KARACHI: In fading light, the shadows of the stands now covering most of the ground at the National Stadium, the stumps had been lit up twice, first by Tim Southee and then Ish Sodhi. Faced with a target of 319 to win the second and final Test against New Zealand, Pakistan’s aim would’ve been to emerge unscathed from the three overs remaining and fight it out on the final day. It didn’t happen.

New Zealand require eight more wickets on Friday to win the series. Pakistan need to survive a grilling to stave off a third straight home series defeat with New Zealand leaving them on the ropes at 0-2 in their second innings having declared theirs at 277-5 — after having gained a 41-run first-innings lead -- early on Thursday.

Southee’s decision to have a bowl at Pakistan ahead of the day’s close paid immediate dividends when the New Zealand skipper accounted for struggling opener Abdullah Shafique with his second delivery. Abdullah had left the first ball outside his off but on the second, he was cleaned up by a delivery that stayed low and found the mark.

The decision to send on nightwatchman Mir Hamza then backfired spectacularly for the hosts. Hamza had seen off Southee on his first four deliveries and was blocking Sodhi as the New Zealand leg-spinner, who’d started the day by finishing off Pakistan’s first innings, came to bowl the final over of the day. Hamza had been successful on the first four balls but was undone on the fifth as New Zealand camped all their fielders around his bat to ramp up pressure. He was deceived by the spin and bowled between bat and pad.

That was how it closed. Pakistan, having earlier been defied by half-centuries from Tom Blundell and Michael Bracewell after they had reduced New Zealand to 128-4, needing to better their record chase at the National Stadium — 315 against Australia in 1994 — to end this season with a Test victory.

Then, it was Inzamam-ul-Haq whose half-century took Pakistan through. Almost three decades on, his nephew Imam-ul-Haq would be at the crease when play resumes on Friday. “I think we can survive tomorrow,” Pakistan’s bowling coach Shaun Tait told reporters at the post-day press conference.

Tait, though, would rue Pakistan’s missed chances in the field, especially after they had taken three New Zealand wickets for 14 runs after lunch. “It’s not a wicket where you take three in a row,” he said. “They have some good batters and it isn’t really easy to get consistent breakthroughs. But, yeah, we didn’t take our chances.”

Bracewell, who said the match remained evenly-poised, admitted it was a testing time when he joined Blundell at the crease. “It was a tough period when we came together,” he told reporters after reaching his maiden half-century. “We started off slowly as there was a risk that if we went too hard, it could see us expose ourselves. But once we closed on the target we had in mind, we accelerated.”

KARACHI: Pakistan opener Abdullah Shafique is cleaned up by New Zealand captain Tim Southee during the second Test at the National Stadium on Thursday.—AFP

MISSED CHANCES

When Pakistan found joy post-lunch, Abrar was involved in everything. The spinner had a loud shout for lbw on New Zealand opener Tom Latham turned down and Pakistan didn’t review. Had they done so, they would’ve found that the ball was hitting the stumps.

Latham, though, would only add five more runs to his tally before a diving Abrar would pluck his catch off Naseem Shah one-handed with his left at short mid-wicket. Latham’s departure after an innings of 62, featuring 11 hits to the fence, would spark a mini-collapse. Naseem and Pakistan would go up in celebration soon after when the incoming Henry Nicholls was adjudged to have been caught behind. An immediate review found a gap between bat and ball.

Abrar, though, would return in the next over and had Kane Williamson lbw for 41. The former New Zealand captain, who hit six boundaries, immediately reviewed the decision but was walking back once the big screen showed his bat had made no contact with the ball. Pakistan had their tails up and New Zealand were four down when Nicholls went at Hasan Ali’s short ball but his shot could only find Pakistan captain Babar Azam at mid-on.

Blundell (74) and Bracewell (74 not out), though, would join hands for a 127-run partnership and blunt Pakistan’s hopes of getting through New Zealand quickly and restrict them from setting a daunting chase. At the tea interval, Pakistan’s interim chief selector Shahid Afridi — at the National Stadium to announce Pakistan’s squad for the upcoming ODIs against New Zealand — told a news conference that the amount of overs Abrar had bowled on pitches that had offered very little, meant “he had been found out”.

Things would’ve been different though if Sarfraz Ahmed had held on to a sharp catch off Abrar when Blundell was on 21. It was in the 79th over when Blundell would brutalise Abrar. A six over mid-wicket was followed by a four swept behind. Bracewell, who made his maiden Test half-century, would then reverse-sweep the spinner for another boundary.

Blundell would eventually depart in the following over as he went after Agha Salman, only to be caught by Imam at long-on. He hit seven fours and that six in his 135-ball stay.

There was another missed opportunity off Abrar when Sarfraz failed to hold on to an edge from Bracewell when he was on 59; the New Zealander then adding insult to injury by driving and pulling Hasan Ali for the 10th and 11th fours of his innings in the same over before the declaration came.

LONG-AWAITED WICKET

It was a Test wicket that took over four years in the making, and some 300 first-class wickets in between, that gave Pakistan a dream start when New Zealand began their second innings. Pakistan pacer Hamza, playing his third Test after his debut against Australia in October 2018, could finally celebrate. On his very first delivery, which angled into Devon Conway, the stumps had been knocked back. Conway, who scored 122 in the first innings, would depart on a golden duck.

From then on, though, barring the spell where New Zealand lost three quick wickets, the tourists looked pretty assured.

The hosts lasted just one over in the morning before they were dismissed for 408 in their first innings. The onus was on Saud Shakeel to carry the hosts as close to New Zealand’s total of 449 and the left-handed picked up a single to reach 125 and give the last ball to last man Abrar. Sodhi (3-95), though, got the tailender lbw — a decision that wasn’t overturned on review on a day when many were including two on Williamson early on in his innings.

Scoreboard

NEW ZEALAND (1st Innings) 449 (D. Conway 122, T. Latham 71, M. Henry 68 not out; Abrar Ahmed 4-149)

PAKISTAN (1st Innings, overnight 407-9):

Abdullah Shafique c Patel b Henry 19

Imam-ul-Haq c Blundell b Southee 83

Shan Masood c Conway b Patel 20

Babar Azam run out 24

Saud Shakeel not out 125

Sarfraz Ahmed st Blundell b Mitchell 78

Agha Salman c Bracewell b Patel 41

Hasan Ali c Conway b Patel 4

Naseem Shah b Sodhi 4

Mir Hamza b Sodhi 0

Abrar Ahmed lbw b Sodhi 0

EXTRAS (LB-7, NB-3) 10

TOTAL (all out, 133 overs) 408

FALL OF WICKETS: 1-27 (Abdullah), 2-56 (Shan), 3-99 (Babar), 4-182 (Imam), 5-332 (Sarfraz), 6-385 (Salman), 7-393 (Hasan), 8-397 (Naseem), 9-397 (Hamza)

BOWLING: Southee 25-7-62-1, Henry 28-9-58-1 (1nb), Patel 17-2-88-3, Bracewell 26-3-87-0, Sodhi 27-3-95-3 (2nb), Mitchell 10-6-11-1

NEW ZEALAND (2nd Innings):

T. Latham c Abrar b Naseem 62

D. Conway b Hamza 0

K. Williamson lbw b Abrar 41

H. Nicholls c Babar b Hasan 5

T. Blundell c Imam b Salman 74

M. Bracewell not out 74

D. Mitchell not out 6

EXTRAS (B-4, LB-8, NB-2, W-1) 15

TOTAL (for five wickets decl, 82 overs) 277

DID NOT BAT: I. Sodhi, T. Southee, M. Henry, A. Patel