Kane Williamson scores a century, New Zealand in a steady position

In the first test between Pakistan and New Zealand, skipper Babar Azam chose to bat first and the green caps scored 438 runs in the first innigs. Babar Azam and Agha Salman both scored a ton while Sarfaraz Ahmed who is playing his first match after four years scored 86 runs.

New Zealand’s batting started on day 3 of the match and the openers gave their team a steady opening before Devon Convey got out on 92 by Nauman Ali. Former New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson came in at number three and with Tom Latham scored a century each, putting Pakistan bowlers under pressure and getting their team closer to the target. Abrar Ahmed, who has debuted this year in the series against England, got the wicket of Tom Latham at 113 runs.

The New Zealand batsmen have played freely throughout the match and all the entire batting unit have made contributions with good striking throughout the innings. The bowling has been lackluster with the pacers not been able to take wickets and the fielding has been sloppy. The bowling unit is missing the fire power of pacers like Haris Rauf and Shaheen Shah Afridi. Mohammad Wasim who managed to grab a wicket has gotten thrashed by the New Zealand batsmen and we saw Daryl Mitchell hitting him for four consecutive fours in an over.

Currently, post the lunch break, New Zealand has scored, 546/6 and has a lead of 108 runs. With Williamson still on the field and scoring 151 runs not out along with Ish Sodhi giving him the stability and scoring a half century himself, it will be interesting to see what target does the black caps set for Pakistan.