Azhar Ali fights with an unbeaten half-century after Pakistan sent greentop
Lon Pakistan 88 for 4 (Azhar 52 *, Rizwan 0 *, Jamieson 3-26) v New Zealand
Teams that have won the toss have previously selected to bowl in each of the seven Tests played at the Hagley Oval in Christchurch. On Sunday, when Kane Williamson made the eighth, Pakistan knew they were going to oppose him. For eighty minutes, they looked good and then Kyle Jamieson showed off all the hard work by hitting a thrush in three pitches as Pakistan were blown away from a slow 66 for 1 to 88 for 4 at a time. lunch on the first morning.
The first of those blows was Abid Ali, who ran out of good luck when he went with hard hands to a lifter, just to be picked up by Tim Southee at the third slip. This broke a second-wicket stand of 62 that had frightened New Zealand for more than an hour after succeeding in the second with a Shan Masood wicket. Ball into his next, Jamieson had caught Haris Sohail in the grooves as he had done with disdain, feeling for one outside with the ball making just enough off the deck to fly off the edge to Henry Nicholls at a cry. The last of those blows came five minutes before lunch when Fawad Alam was kicked out by an enemy short ball that went off the gloves to goalkeeper BJ Watling.
Azhar Ali showed the good qualities of an old Test game by playing straight, looking to play with soft hands, not pushing deliveries moving away from it and trying to weave out of delivery. short. However, the green on the wicket ensured that there were deliveries that did enough to beat the inside edge, outside edge, flying wide of the cord. But when you have such a fortune, you should try to make it count. Azhar did just that to put up a half-century fight just before lunch, unbeknownst to 52. One of the most interesting things was his intention to put off bad delivery so that the scoreboard would movement. He had for his captain, Mohammad Rizwan, who literally had to be scratched to order his gear and go out to the center to assemble his team from trouble, not for the first time. once on tour.
Jamieson, who started in test cricket at this time last year against India, got the ball for a sudden kick and disturbed the batsmen both with short balls and full delivery. -mobile. Much of this hostility was due to his hard lengths which helped him generate a kick from a distance where bats that now play forward suddenly looked back. It was this slight suspicion that greatly altered the speed of the intestines. After ingested just after drinks, he went for lunch, finishing the session with figures 8-3-26-3.
That was not the case for Pakistan. They also have one less review after Masood fired one in the second after being out to Southee’s toe presser. Beautifully arranged with a series of away deliveries in the first place, Southee surprised him with a long delivery yorker who went in late to hit the shoe. An instinctive review only confirmed the worst fears in Pakistan: the ball would have fallen into the middle of the middle stump.
New Zealand have lost at home for 16 Tests, and are clamoring for 17th, which could be the No. 1 Test team for the first time ever. To do this, they went in with an attack at a distance that meant Mitchell Santner had to make way for Daryl Mitchell, and Matt Henry, who scored six steady blows back when he returned to inter-cricket. national after more than a year, replacing Neil who injured Wagner. Meanwhile, Pakistan made the inaugural visit to legendary midfielder Zafar Gohar. This meant that Yasir Shah had to make his way.
Shashank Kishore is a senior sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo