Pakistan in control on first day at Wellington
The final session of play between Pakistan and New Zealand again saw the home team lose two wickets. Earlier, the Kiwi team had lost a similar number of wickets in each session of play today at http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Wellington-c864, after they elected to bat first.
The hosts started the post-tea session at 147 runs for the loss of four wickets. There were high hopes from Ross Taylor to score a big century for his team as he was one of the unbeaten batsmen until tea, batting on 65 runs.
The other unbeaten batsmen, who had a 49-run partnership with http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Taylor-c92915 until tea, was James Franklin who was brought into the team in place of opening batsman Tim McIntosh.
The start to the session was disappointing for the Kiwi team. After just adding 19more runs to the total, the team lost its first wicket of the session and fifth overall. Franklin was out after getting a start of 33 runs but he failed to convert it into
a big innings.
Taylor, who batted very well for his 78 runs, was the next wicket to fall for the home team to leave his side in tatters. The team was struggling at 180 for the loss of six wickets, when Captain Daniel Vettori joined wicketkeeper batsman http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Reece-Young-c2302 at the
crease.
Both batsmen steered the team to a respectable total at the close of play, and made sure that they didn’t lose any wickets. Young played a steady innings of 28 while Vettori played his shots whenever he got the opportunity. He was unbeaten on 38 with Young.
The pair complemented each other very well and didn’t allow Pakistan to take advantage of the second new ball. At close of play, the http://www.senore.com/Cricket/New-Zealand-c754 team scored 246 runs for the loss of six wickets.
Umar Gul and Tanvir Ahmed were on target for Pakistan and both took two wickets each in the day. However, it was left-arm spinner Abdur Rehman and pacer Wahab Riaz, who provided breakthroughs to their team in the final session of play. Both took one wicket
each with Riaz dismissing Taylor.
The situation seems pretty similar to the first Test match, when the home team was almost in a similar position at the close of first day’s play. However, the Kiwi team will be looking forward to get more runs tomorrow morning, rather than repeating what
they did in the first Test.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 will be quite happy with their performance on the opening day, and will be eying a few quick wickets tomorrow to wrap-up the New Zealand tail.
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