New Zealand wilt in Abi Dhabi heat

• Cricket365
• November 11, 2014

Pakistan have reached 15 for no loss in their second innings after dismissing New Zealand for 262 late on the third day of the first Test, in Abu Dhabi.

Pakistan have reached 15 for no loss in their second innings after dismissing New Zealand for 262 late on the third day of the first Test, in Abu Dhabi.

Thanks to the left-arm spin of Zulfiqar Babar and the pace and swing of Rahat Ali, the Pakistanis managed a 304-run first innings lead, which had grown to 319 by the time the umpires called stumps.

Azhar Ali (nine) opened the batting in place of the injured Ahmed Shahzad, who suffered a fractured skull on Monday, while Mohammad Hafeez was on five by the time stumps was called.

Earlier, the Kiwis resumed their innings on Wednesday morning with their score on 15 for no loss in response to Pakistan's total of 566 for three, after the home side declared late on the second day.

The visitors had negotiated the first hour of the morning when opener Brendan McCullum (18) was caught by one of Pakistan's centurions Younis Khan at first slip when he could only manage an outside edge off the left-arm spinner.

With the score on 33 for one, Kane Williamson joined opener Latham at the wicket, but it quickly became 38 for two when the number three batsman fell to Ali in the next over.

After blocking a full delivery just outside off-stump, Williamson (three) saw that the ball was going to spin back onto his stumps and in attempt to prevent that from occurring, he nudged his bat into the stumps.

Former captain Ross Taylor was the new batsman, but he too didn't last long at the wicket.

In what was almost an exact copy of the McCullum dismissal when he edged another Babar delivery that spun away from him to Asad Shafiq in the gully and had to walk back to the changing room without troubling the scorers.

The session could have been even more disastrous for the visitors had Pakistan not dropped two difficult chances from the bat of Latham, when his score was on five and 32.

At lunch, New Zealand had reached 81 for the loss of three wickets, with Latham on 42 and Corey Anderson on 13 respectively.

Anderson and opener Tom Latham played far more aggressively after the interval than in the morning session, with both players sweeping the slow bowlers at every opportunity and flashing at anything out-side the off stump from the seamers.

After taking the score to 130, Anderson became the fourth New Zealand wicket to fall when he attempted a cut shot to a Rahat Ali delivery that was too close to him to play the shot and played on from the inside edge.

New batsman Neesham attempted a different approach, but after surviving for 29 deliveries, he was stumped off the next ball from Mohammad Hafeez when he came down the wicket in an attempt to play an aggressive shot.

After failing to reach the pitch of the delivery, he was beaten in the flight and Sarfraz Ahmed behind the Pakistan stumps made no mistake.

At the tea interval, Latham had reached 87 while wicket-keeper BJ Watling was on 13.

Latham eventually reached his maiden Test century after the interval with a well-timed straight driver for four – his 13th boundary, but was dismissed shortly thereafter for 103 when he became Rahat's third wicket with the score 216 for six.

The opener was beaten by the prodigious in-swing the left-arm seamer was extracting and was dismissed leg-before after sending the batsmen sent the out verdict to the third umpire.

After his dismissal, the remainder of the New Zealand lower order offered little resistance.

New batsman Mark Craig (one) was run out following a mix-up between himself and Watling, before Tim Southee was caught behind off Rahat driving extravagantly to a full and wide delivery for zero.

In fact, Southee should have been dismissed on the previous delivery when he edged an almost identical delivery behind, only for Sarfraz to drop a relatively routine catch.

Ish Sodhi (25) added 43 for the ninth wicket with Watling before he was bowled by a Yasir Shah leg-spinner, before Watling (42) was the last man out – lbw to Babar – when he tried to hit the left-arm spinner out of the ground