Wellington, December 12: Danish Kaneria spun a web around the New Zealand batsmen to leave the Test hanging in the balance at tea on the second day in Napier.
New Zealand’s progress was slow, at times it was painstaking, but for a team that collapsed for 99 last week, they had done well to reach 88 for 2 at lunch before Pakistan roared back into the game.
Tim McIntosh’s defiance was the primary feature of the morning session but Kaneria eventually broke his resistance and that of several others as well after lunch. Kaneria was allowed to settle into a rhythm because of New Zealand’s defensive approach and it was his googly that caused batsmen the most trouble. Unlike in the past, when he was guilty of overusing it at times, Kaneria was more prudent in deploying the wrong one today. He concentrated on building pressure with his bouncing leg breaks and sliders and bowled a variety of deliveries that slowly suffocated the batsmen.
It was the wicket of Ross Taylor that got Kaneria going. Taylor, whose brisk innings was filled with punchy square-drives, fell by top-edging a slog sweep and Pakistan immediately went for the kill. Fielders crowded the batsmen, Kaneria was on song, the crowd fell silent and there was an edginess in New Zealand’s batting that wasn’t visible in the morning.
Kaneria was working his victims over. He bowled a few loopy deliveries on the leg side to McIntosh who suddenly began playing the sweep. Encouraged by a couple of edgy attempts, Kaneria persisted with the occasional delivery on leg stump and got one to bounce and take the edge. He then turned his attention to Daniel Flynn, spinning a few legbreaks into the left-hander before slipping in a googly that caught the edge. The appeal for caught behind was turned down but the decision was reversed after a review. It may have been the right decision, for Flynn seemed to walk, but video evidence wasn’t conclusive.
Until Kaneria broke through, though, Pakistan had been kept at bay by McIntosh’s patience. The defining image of his half-century was not a shot but the military snap with which he shouldered arms. There were a couple of caressed drives, the highlight being a fluent straight one off Mohammad Aamer that brought up his fifty, but for the main part McIntosh was solid in defence.
McIntosh’s batting style has almost an anesthetic air about it but today’s stone-walling effort wasn’t dull or boring. His tendency to be dismissed lbw, his poor run of scores, and the match situation made the morning’s cricket interesting to watch. The premise of the contest was simple: Pakistan seamers, especially Mohammad Asif, were trying to trap McIntosh lbw; they would take many deliveries away from him and bring one back in hoping for the mistake, but he held firm. McIntosh left 57 balls alone and he played out 151 dot balls as he continued to defend passionately. He took a leg stump guard and took care not to press his front leg too far across. Rewind to last evening, when he was given out lbw against Asif by the umpire only for him to get it overturned by asking for a review. That decision had perhaps saved his Test career for he had struggled to get going so far in this series.
——Agencies