Kyle Jamieson’s third test five ensured New Zealand shared the honors of the day
Pakistan 297 (Azhar 93, Rizwan 61, Ashraf 48, Jamieson 5-69) v New Zealand
A highly concentrated tackle from Azhar Ali and one full of initiative from Mohammad Rizwan, the captain, formed the basis of Pakistan’s greatly improved hitting performance. However, you may have been left wondering what it would have been like if your main order had shown a little more application.
That said, by scoring close to 3.50 runs to make 297, Pakistan made sure to push the game on a surface where the ball did enough throughout the day to keep fast players interested. The fact that they were being asked questions throughout the day was due in large part to Kyle Jamieson, who claimed his third five for testing.
Azhar’s strike was largely one of denial. The risks weren’t his cup of tea, the emphasis firmly on occupying the folds by playing close to the body and trying to wear down the bowlers. That said, when races were tight and Jamieson was threatening to take his game away, Azhar also found a way to punish rare bad deliveries, his driving in particular from the top drawer.
His 82-run partnership with Rizwan after Pakistan lost three wickets in the same number of overs to Jamieson, who entered the first substitution after the first hour of play, changed the tone of Pakistan’s innings. At 83-for-4, when the collapse was written all over the innings, Rizwan made sure he was up and running to ease much of the pressure on Azhar.
The day started badly for Pakistan with Shan Masood caught lbw by a Tim Southee finger crusher on the third day of the morning. This was after Southee placed him in the opening with a succession of on the road deliveries, all of which he handled well with a tight defense. Not only did Masood eventually end up falling in love with a duck, but he also burned a review by referring to what looked like a lead call, something Ball Trace reaffirmed seconds later.
Abid Ali was the next to go, but after he had fought his way and struggled for the first hour. His hitting game on the side of the legs was competent, but the tendency to push deliveries from the outside made him play too much on the cord. It didn’t help that Jamieson got him to shoot himself a little and straighten up.
Then two deliveries in Jamieson’s next, Haris Sohail, about whom there seem to be question marks every time he hits, found himself caught in a moment of indecision. The ball flew off his edge when he decided to remove the bat, with Henry Nicholls pocketing one in the ravine. By then it was clear that this was not a surface to try to make your way through, racing was equally important.
Jamieson drove this home further when Fawad Alam, centurion from the previous game, received a snort from a gorilla that caused him to fall while trying to defend himself, only for the ball to slam into it to throw the glove at BJ Watling behind the stumps. Thus, Pakistan had collapsed. But Rizwan had other ideas as he walked confidently.
He counterattacked superbly after a rain break, hitting Trent Boult for three consecutive limits to get the score moving. He was particularly severe on anything, even a split second, using his hand-eye coordination to make fierce cutting shots, or sometimes even using rhythm to guide the ball along the mat behind the square on the side. from outside.
It took Jamieson’s introduction one more time after the drinks to disrupt the association. By having one take off a pitch and come back in, he made Rizwan play the wrong line when he struck behind. This could have ended up being a double strike for New Zealand if Ross Taylor had not let Faheem Ashraf slip away on the first slip at 4. It would cost New Zealand 44 more as Ashraf followed his captain’s template to counter with the lower order of the company.
When Azhar was out in the last session of 93, it looked like Pakistan could pull out quickly. But Ashraf and newcomer Zafar Gohar set a pattern that their higher order could have done better to follow. Gohar, with a first-class batting average of 21 before this game, hit a solid 34 to add more weight before the lower order was dismantled without much of a fight.
Shashank Kishore is a senior deputy editor at ESPNcricinfo
.
