Asif sends New Zealand reeling by Jinu Sabastian

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Ground:	Basin Reserve, Wellington
Scorecard:	New Zealand v Pakistan
Player:	Mohammad Asif, Mohammad Yousuf, Umar Akmal
Event:	Pakistan in New Zealand 2009/10

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DateLine: 5th December 2009

 

Pakistan dominated the proceedings on Day three and will be looking to close out the issue on Day four as they need just seven Kiwi wickets to level the series. Yousuf and Umar Akmal flayed the Kiwi bowlers to help Pakistan gain a substantial lead over New Zealand before the Kiwi bowlers fought back admirably to dismiss Pakistan for 239. Asif then blew away the top-order with some an excellent exhibition of swing and seam bowling while the rest of the bowlers ensured that the Kiwi batsmen did not get off the hook.

 

The Pakistani overnight duo of Yousuf and Misbah continued from where they left yesterday but the journey was not smooth. Tuffey and O'Brien employed the short pitch stuff to both the batsmen who looked uncomfortable against the barrage. The batting duo took their time, waited for the right ball to attack and when the Kiwi bowlers erred the pair scored runs off them. The duo of Misbah and Yousuf relied on singles in the early part of the day as Vettori employed a semi-defensive field to check the run flow. The pair added 77 for the third wicket in 35 overs before a fuller length delivery from O'Brien claimed the wicket of Misbah (33) who edged an attempted cover-drive through to the keeper. Then came a blistering assault from Umar Akmal that left the Kiwi bowlers dazed.

 

Umar was in his stride straightaway as he drove O'Brien powerfully through covers to signal his intentions. Then he turned his attention on Vettori who was courageous enough to toss the ball up but Umar accepted the challenge and went downtown. Yousuf was happy to turn over the strike to his younger partner who simply went berserk. While Yousuf was calm Umar resembled a raging bull who was intent on demoralising the Kiwi bowlers who looked quite lost with the assault. Umar raised his half century of just 32 balls with a blaze of boundaries and looked good for more when Vettori pulled out another good catch at mid-off running back. After the dismissal of the youngster it was a return to normalcy as proper cricketing strokes were played.

 

Elliot removed Malik (3) and Kamran (0) in consecutive deliveries to dent the Pakistani innings but Yousuf remained calm among the chaos as he brought order to the proceedings with assured stroke-play as he brought up a patient half-century. The Kiwi bowlers did well to pull back the Pakistani innings from running away as they claimed the last six wickets for just 29 runs as Pakistan were all out for 239 with an overall lead of 404.

 

New Zealand top order continued to fail as McIntosh (2) fell when he was trapped leg-before with an excellent leg-cutter though doubts were cast about the height. Guptill and Flynn battled hard as they were able to keep the Pakistani bowlers at bay but the scoring was not as fluent as it was when the Pakistani team batted. The Pakistani skipper was able to employ an attacking field as he had sufficient runs to play with and the Kiwi batsmen were not able to keep the strike rotating with singles. Finally after lot of struggle Guptill (15) fell when Asif cleaned him up and then in the seamer's next over got one to nip away sharply from Flynn (20) to edge behind.

 

The Pakistani bowlers then proceeded to reduce Fulton, who was already struggling, and Taylor to stroke-less wonders with tight bowling as the pair looked entirely lost. The pair though beaten on several occasions kept their head and added unbeaten 33 in 16.3 overs to take New Zealand to stumps.