From 13 for 2, New Zealand recovered to 55 for 2 at lunch
Lunch New Zealand 55 for 2 (Taylor 25*, Williamson 19*, Afridi 2-14) vs Pakistan
Pakistan enjoyed the best possible opening hour in the first Test at Mount Maunganui, winning the toss and gaining the early initiative with Shaheen Afridi dismissing both openers in a probing first spell. But the magnitude of the task of competing with New Zealand in their own conditions soon became apparent to the visitors, with Kane Williamson and Ross Taylor testing the depth of their bowling resources while putting on an unbroken 42 and batting through to lunch.
From 13 for 2, New Zealand have recovered to 55 for 2 at lunch.
The most recent visitors to these shores, West Indies, had wasted the new ball in favourable conditions in their first Test in Hamilton, bowling too short and not making the top order play enough. Pakistan’s opening bowlers didn’t repeat that mistake, and Afridi was on target straightaway. His first ball asked Tom Latham those two most pressing questions – come forward or go back, and play or leave – and hesitant responses to both led to an outside edge running away between third slip and gully. Latham didn’t survive a similar examination two balls later, however, edging straight to third slip.
Two right-handers were at the crease now, and Afridi tested them on both edges with his left-arm-over angle and the threat of the ball swinging back. Mohammad Abbas, meanwhile, ensured there were no easy leaves with a line that was more middle-and-off than off-stump.
This both-ends examination soon led to the wicket of Tom Blundell, who failed to get his weight fully forward into a drive against Afridi, and edged low to third slip in the 11th over of the morning.
Afridi and Abbas couldn’t continue forever, however, and their replacements didn’t quite prove their equals in testing the batsmen at the crease. Faheem Ashraf, picked as a seam-bowling allrounder, did the job that was asked of him, bowling a tight line and length and giving little away, but Naseem Shah relieved the pressure with a series of short and overpitched balls to Ross Taylor, who celebrated becoming New Zealand’s most-capped international player with a series of square-cuts, drives and flicks.
At the other end, Kane Williamson grew into his innings in typical fashion, getting right behind the line, defending with the softest hands in the business, and trusting the bounce in the Bay Oval pitch to frequently leave on length.
Williamson and Taylor didn’t shift the momentum entirely New Zealand’s way, though, with Pakistan pulling Naseem out of the attack after three overs that cost 21 runs, and replacing him with Yasir Shah, who quickly settled into a rhythm and brought the run-flow back under control, conceding just one run in his first three overs.
As lunch approached, Pakistan brought Naseem back for one last burst, and he nearly produced a breakthrough with seam movement in the corridor to find Williamson’s edge as he defended off the back foot. Once again, though, Williamson’s soft hands saved him, with the ball dying as it reached the cordon. It carried to second slip, barely, but Shan Masood couldn’t quite hold on to the one-handed chance while falling to his left.
Karthik Krishnaswamy is a senior sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo