Kane Williamson scored his fifth double to share a 159-run winning streak with Ish Sodi. Issodi defeated Pakistan on her fourth day, giving her a lead of 174 runs before Tim Southey declared.
Williamson and Sodi fought for over half a day, frustrating for Pakistan. The duo added just 79 runs in the first session, but set the tone that allowed New Zealand to make steady progress and take a healthy lead.
Both Sodhi and Williamson were generally comfortable on pitches that offered only slow turns as rough spots were still far from the stumps. Naumann-Ali rolled around and tried to strike those spots to arouse suspicion, but did little to deter the duo, who could comfortably handle the run. Ali beat Williamson to 116 on the pads and was about to pick a wicket when he passed the referee on the field. However, upon checking, I discovered that the ball had hit the outside of my foot stump. Pakistan’s luck in the review was still poor as it happened shortly after being wasted against Sodhi. Mohammad Wasim Jr put the old ball back in and full he hit Sodhi with the ball but replays confirmed that his edge on the inside wasn’t worth checking.
Not getting enough bites with the old ball, Pakistan took advantage of his third new ball when it became available. However, although the batted ball was fast, the New Zealand batsman was less concerned. But it offered more opportunities. Sodhi smashed through his chains in an empty slip twice, once in the mill He scored a feather minutes before his lunch break with Hamza, but none of the players on the field picked it up. The appeal never came and it allowed Sodhi to march and bring up 50 in the second session.
Williamson interrupted his steady tapping with occasional lofts on the floor to keep Spinner guessing. He hit more shots in the second session and his backswing also proved effective despite being played out of the rough.
However, New Zealand slipped on the other side. Sodhi gained the leading edge trying to give Abrar a leg break and was caught in the middle, Southey likewise ducked against Naumann Ali and Neil Wagner scored a gloved sweep to give Abrar his fifth. rice field. By just two runs he had three wickets in the same number of overs, so Williamson threatened to be stranded without him having two tons.
But when Ajaz his Patel parried his 8-ball, Williamson hit his cover with a lofted 6 and 4 overs, setting a milestone and moving Brendon past his McCallum to New Zealand’s all-time list. I put it in It was also his second double-ton against Pakistan, enough for Southey to declare immediately.
Brief scores: New Zealand 612/9 d (Kane Williamson 200*, Tom Latham 113, Devon Conway 92, Ish Sodhi 65; Abrar Ahmed 5-205) lead Pakistan 438 (Babar Azam 161, Agha Salman 103; Tim Southee 3-69) by 174 runs.