The limited-overs leg of the Pakistan tour of New Zealand 2020-21 is done and dusted with home team winning the series by a margin of 2-1. The first Test of the 2-match series kick started today at the Bay Oval in Mount Maunganui. Depleted Pakistan side who are without their captain Babar Azam and ace all-rounder Shadab Khan did find it hard against strong New Zealand side on Day 1.
Pakistan won the toss and opted to bowl first in this innings. Here are the highlights from the first day’s play.
New Zealand’s Shaky start:
Having sent into bat first, New Zealand openers found it tough in the first session on a grassy pitch at the Bay Oval. The sheer pace of Pakistan pacers proved to be too much to handle. As a result, both NZ openers Tom Latham (4 runs) and Tom Blundell (5 runs) were dismissed inside 11 overs. Incidentally, Pakistan’s Shaheen Afridi bagged the wickets of both the Kiwis’ openers.
The Gritty Partnerships:
New Zealand found themselves in trouble having lost both their openers cheaply. Then the experienced players in the side, Kane Williamson and Ross Taylor added 120 runs for the third wicket to bail them out of trouble. Taylor contributed 70 runs in this stand while Williamson contributed 46 runs.
Post Taylor’s dismissal, Williamson batted superbly along with Henry Nicholls on Day 1 to help NZ not to lose any further wickets on the first day of this Test match. The pair stitched an unbeaten 89*-run stand (Contribution: Williamson – 44*, Nicholls – 42*) for the fourth wicket before stumps on Day 1. This partnership would define the course of this Test match on second day of this Test match.
The Milestone Zone:
New Zealand veteran player Ross Taylor created a milestone in this Test match. The ongoing first Test match between New Zealand and Pakistan is his 438th International game for NZ across all the formats. These are the most number of Internationals that any player has represented NZ thus far! Taylor surpassed Daniel Vettori (437 international games for NZ) in the ongoing Test match.
With Babar Azam injured, Pakistan had named their wicket-keeper Mohammad Rizwan as their stand-in captain for the first Test match. With this, Rizwan has become the 33rd player to captain Pakistan in the Test format.
Notable Performances:
New Zealand captain Kane Williamson stole the show with the bat as he remained unbeaten on 94* at stumps on Day 1. He needs to score 6 more runs on Day 2 to get to his 23rd century in the longer format of the game. On the other hand, Shaheen Afridi was the pick of Pakistan bowlers with 3 wickets against his name. Coincidentally, Afridi bagged all the three wickets to fall in New Zealand’s innings on Day 1!
Brief Scores: New Zealand – 222/3 (Kane Williamson – 94*, Ross Taylor – 70, Shaheen Afridi – 3/55) at stumps on Day 1
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