Imam Ul Haq led Pakistani resistance in the bat after an early strike threatened to derail New Zealand’s response to 449.
After starring in the bat, Matt Henry and Ajaz Patel were also wicket takers, the former suffering a pulldown from Abdullah Shafiq to a deep square leg, Patel being hit by his 3 bounces on Shan his Masood. I had the last laugh when I caught him at the point after I got him.
To make matters worse, in the last session skipper Babar Azam was caught in a mess on his third run. This left both Babar and Imam stranded near the end of the strikers, with Pakistan losing third by under 100 men. However, Imam succeeded in reinforcing the innings with a determined Saud Shaqir. It wasn’t until the 42nd ball that Shaquille hit the bull’s eye, but the Imam was able to breathe a sigh of relief on the other side when the runs began to flow. Imam reached his seventh Test 50, six ahead of Michael Bracewell, who had intercepted most of Imam’s penalties, who had also been hit on consecutive boundaries before. New Zealand also lost their rating to Imam after Bracewell’s move tricked them into believing there was an advantage in staying behind.
The duo snapped an unbeaten 55-run winning streak and helped Pakistan finally work things out after New Zealand threatened to withdraw after a lower hit with the racket. New Zealand’s tail was wagging nicely after Tom Blundell’s 51 helped stop the slide. His stand for 104 runs in the final wicket between Matt Henry and Ajaz Patel tipped the balance firmly in the direction of the visitors.
It had been set up earlier in the day at the bat. Blundell lost his overnight partner Ish Sodi to Naseem Shah early on, but got some support from skipper Tim Sausy.
The duo briefly held the innings in partnership, but a double strike put New Zealand further down. Against the flow of play, Blundell was bowled out for 51 by Abrar Ahmed, beating out the Cultivators. Abrar attacked again in the next over and Southey lost his balance and eventually stumbled. This saw Abrar make his 26th Test in his first of his four Tests and move him to the top of the list of Pakistan’s leading wickets his takers.
Pakistan’s hopes of ending New Zealand’s innings within his 350 were short-lived, but the final wicket pair Matt Henry and Ajaz Patel were shaken off in a boundary-filled partnership.
Henry’s attack began with Hassan taking on his ants. Hassan Ali was hit by balls on three boundaries in succession. Ajaz Patel, on the other hand, initially proved capable enough to hold up, only coming in at the 15-hour ball, but quickly gained confidence and beat Abrar to the boundary. Henry beat Naseem Shah at mid-wicket and he also scored six, two leading New Zealand over 400.
Henry made his third Test 50 on just 42 balls, Ajaz recorded his highest Test score, the duo chopped off 113 balls and the extra 30 minutes of the first morning gave Pakistan and further advanced to second before Patel finally drilled into the deep hole.