Despite a broken toe, Neil Wagner threw 49 overs in the test and chose 4 wickets.
One day Fawad Alam brought up his second Test Hundred, the first since 2009, it was only fair that New Zealand also experienced the throes of a long wait. Although 63.2 overs in no way compares to 11 years, the fifth-field partnership between Alam and Mohammad Rizwan felt like this, coming completely against the development of the game and taking the home team by surprise.
But New Zealand found a way to break through the 165-race stand, as they usually do at home, and sealed a major 101-run victory in the final hour of play. They are now No. 1 in the Test Rankings for the first time in history and scored crucial points in a bid to be in the top two of the World Test Championship.
It was Kyle Jamieson who provided the crucial breakthrough with a delivery that remained low for Mohammad Rizwan. And then came Neil Wagner’s famous short ball, just as effective when thrown with a broken toe, as Alam would discover. All he could do was bring him closer to the goalkeeper.
It wasn’t too difficult for New Zealand, especially after Wagner scraped the edge of Faheem Ashraf with a length delivery that straightened slightly. Or so they thought. The final pair of Shaheen Afridi and Mohammed Abbas hit 8.1 overs before a brilliant catch back from Mitchell Santner saw Naseem Shah’s back and the end of Pakistan’s innings.
Earlier, in an encouraging start to the day, Pakistan lost just one wicket in the first session, adding 62 runs in 27 overs to bring the fight back to New Zealand. However, the day had started very differently for Pakistan. Azhar Ali fell on Tim Southee’s first over of the day, pushing and skirting a ball that could have been left alone, and sparking fears of a collapse. But that’s not what happened, as both Rizwan and Fawad took minimal risks from there, survived Wagner’s goalkeeper-yorker attack, and took time out of the game.
The afternoon was even safer. Pakistan did not lose a wicket during the second session, the batting duo of Alam and Rizwan added 78 runs to put more pressure on New Zealand. In fact, the most action occurred 10 minutes into the tea break, when Kyle Jamieson nearly got Mohammad Rizwan to catch a yorker and Tim Southee threw a pair of unplayable deliveries. The fact that everything came with only the second new ball summed up the state of the game and, to some extent, the field.
Alam chose his moments wisely, attacking Mitchell Santer early on and then choosing quick runs against the new ball later. Rizwan, hitting his fourth straight fiftieth, was a capable teammate at the other end. The closest New Zealand came to picking a wicket was with a Jamieson wide yorker that Rizwan almost reached the slip cord. It took multiple repetitions from the third referee to determine that it was actually a hit ball.
Quick Scores: New Zealand 431 and 180/5 dec. hit Pakistan 239 and 271 (Fawad Alam 102, Mohammad Rizwan 60; Tim Southee 2-33, Kyle Jamieson 2-35) for 101 runs
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