Pakistan secure convincing victory in first Test against New Zealand, Rehman declared Man-of-the-Match
For quite some time now Pakistan’s cricket team has been in shambles in the Test arena. After a victory against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746 last summer that helped Pakistan draw the two match series 1-1, there hasn’t been much hope for the cornered tigers.
The controversies of spot fixing in the series against England last year left them with a huge setback as they lost three of their key players.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/South-Africa-c757.
After losing the T20 series, Pakistan came back strong in the final T20 against New Zealand on their current tour and carried the momentum forward into the Tests as they delivered New Zealand a thumping defeat in the first Test at Hamilton.
Who would have thought New Zealand on their home soil would face something that was nothing short of an embarrassment as they lost to the visitors by 10 wickets?
Pakistan won the toss and chose to field in order to channel some of the moisture present on the surface. They were able to bowl New Zealand out for 275 runs.
A few of the Kiwi batsmen secured half centuries but none of them could carry their innings further. Brendon McCullum, Martin Guptill, Kane Williamson, and Tim Southee were the ones to provide New Zealand with a batting performance of 50 runs and above but
none of them could carry it on to the hundreds against some ruthless bowling from Pakistan.
Tanvir Ahmad took 4 wickets while the spin sensation Abdur Rehman took 3 wickets to devastate the New Zealand side. Umar Gul finished with 2 wickets under his belt.
In reply, Pakistan’s batting line-up worked well for the team and posed a total of 367, securing a lead of 92 runs over the home team.
After losing their first opener, Mohammad Hafeez, for a duck, the visitors came back strong. For Pakistan Taufeeq Umar, Misbah-ul-Haq and Asad Shafiq scored half centuries. The key partnership between Misbah and Shafiq played the anchor role to bring Pakistan
to such a strong total. Misbah scored 62 while http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Shafiq-c89281 played a sparkling innings of 83 runs.
A partnership between Adnan Akmal and Abdur Rehman down the order also contributed precious runs to the Pakistani total. Akmal scored 44 runs, while Rehman made a contribution of 28 runs.
The pick of the bowlers was certainly Brent Arnel for New Zealand with his 4 wickets. Chris Martin took 3 wickets while Southee grabbed 2 wickets to bowl the Pakistan team out in their first innings.
New Zealand’s second innings on the third day at Hamilton was nothing less than a disaster. The Kiwi’s were bowled out for just 110 runs giving Pakistan a final target of only 19 runs.
The Kiwis lost their first wicket for 36 when Tim McIntosh was stumped by Akmal off Rehman’s bowling. He went home after scoring only 3 runs. That was the beginning of the end for the home team as wickets started to fall for them at regular intervals and
no partnerships were established to rescue New Zealand from http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755’s bowling assault.
The only batsman, who looked in some form was, McCullum, for his 35 until he edged one to the keeper off Wahab Riaz. Other than McCullum no Kiwi batsmen even reached the 20 run mark. Umar Gul, Wahab Riaz and Abdur Rehman all took 3 wickets each to completely
destroy the New Zealand batting line-up.
The books for http://www.senore.com/Cricket/New-Zealand-c754 were closed for a low total of just 110 runs posing a lead of only 18 runs. Pakistan chased the target in just 15 minutes to secure a victory and the lead in the two match series.
Taufeeq Umar made 12, while Mohammad Hafeez scored 9 runs to achieve the low victory target and both remained unbeaten to crush the New Zealand side with such a devastating defeat. Abdur Rehman was declared Man-of-the-Match for his 6 wicket haul.
Now, as Pakistan has won the first Test convincingly, will they try and repeat the same performance in the next one to clean sweep the Kiwis or will New Zealand fight back in the next one to draw the series and redeem themselves?
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