It was a bright sunny morning for the start of the first Test between a visiting Pakistan and hosts New Zealand and it became even better, in strictly cricketing terms, when Shaheen Afridi started the day on fire.
With a full slip squadron ready to grab at anything that comes their way, Shaheen flew in and made the ball talk.
His first victim was Tom Latham. The left-hander faced the first ball with anxious hands and saw an edge flow off his bat towards gully. He must have thanked the heaven that the fielder was a little wide on this occasion. New Zealand start on a high note with a four, but Latham is now worried.
The next ball, he shoulder an out-swinging delivery. Shaheen is finding his length meanwhile. Then comes the third ball, Latham wants to find the middle of the bat to ease his nerves, but a hint of extra bounce and a lazy shot culminate in an edge which is carried into the hands of Azhar Ali at third slip. Perfect start for Pakistan, perfect confidence booster for Shaheen.
Fast bowlers hunt in pairs and Muhammad Abbas did exactly what Shaheen needed from him. He bowls a maiden to Kane Williamson. Bowlers are dominating with just two overs bowled in the first innings.
Shaheen goes steaming in again, Abbas follows. New Zealand are managing one or two runs an over, adjusting to the pace and bounce of the pitch, while Shaheen and Abbas are zipping one or two deliveries past their bats in each over.
Then comes the 11th over, and Shaheen starts it with a back of the length delivery as Tom Blundell defends it towards short leg. Blundell is now expecting some short stuff, but Shaheen has other plans.
He goes for a fuller delivery on off, teases Blundell into driving which he does, but only to edge it to Yasir Shah at the third slip. Two wickets for Shaheen and New Zealand are on the back foot now.
Naseem Shah, Faheem Ashraf and Yasir Shah are introduced into the attack. New Zealand have their most experienced pair of Kane Williamson and Ross Taylor in the middle. Both are scoring at a strike rate of less than 50 at the moment, while Naseem and Faheem are bamboozling them again and again with pace and length.
The pressure finally pays off, Naseem takes one away from Williamson (on 18 at the moment), who uncharacteristically plays it with soft hands just to see an edge fly to Shan Masood at second slip. Shan ducks to his favoured left side only to see the ball caress his fingers and touch the green.
New Zealand now have the impetus to carry on and the momentum shifts in their favour. Taylor and Williamson combine for a third-wicket partnership and Pakistan are left wanting for answers.
Test cricket is such an amazing format, where just a dropped catch can turn the match on its head and this is what happened on day one of the first match between Pakistan and New Zealand.
Pakistan then got a breakthrough courtesy once again Shaheen as he pushed Taylor back with a short delivery and then pitched it on length, taking it away to find an edge.
But other than that, Pakistan weren’t able to make any inroads. And if things were bad, they became worse at the latter part of the innings when first Henry Nicholls was dropped at long leg by a forward-diving Muhammad Abbas in the 64th over.
And then came the chance Pakistan had been looking for all day as Williamson gave Haris Sohail a practice catch to take and well, he did what is majorly expected of a Pakistani fielder in the international arena nowadays – drop it.
The 81st over misery was the final nail in Pakistan’s confidence coffin and they didn’t even look like trying to dismiss any New Zealand batsman after that. It just seemed like they wanted to get done with the day and maybe come on day two and try again.
Pakistan opted to bat first in the Test match to put pressure on New Zealand with the new ball on the perfect-for-seamers top. They did execute the plan perfectly in the early part of the day, but the drop catches, due to lack of focus or practice or maybe just laziness, then made evident why they lurk on the seventh spot in Tests – a format which is more a trial of nerves than cricketing ability.
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