Pakistan trounce New Zealand, win first Test by 248 runs

New Zealand’s No.10 Ish Sodhi delayed the inevitable for over an hour on the fifth and final day and top-scored with a gritty career-best 63 with seven  fours and a six before he was the last man to go.

Sodhi frustrated Pakistan bid and shared a 54-run last-wicket stand with Trent Boult before he was out leg before wicket to fast bowler Imran Khan’s (2-37) inswinger.

Chasing a 480-run target, New Zealand was left lurching at 174-8 on the fourth day as they failed to cope with either the spinning duo of Yasir Shah (3-74) and Zulfiqar Babar (2-48) or the reverse swing of Imran and Rahat Ali (2-48).

Legspinner Shah had overnight batsman Mark Craig (28) clean bowled in his first over of the day before Sodhi and Boult prolonged the innings with some defiant batting.

Sodhi swept Shah for a four and a six to reach his second Test fifty and got a lucky escape when he gloved a sweep off Babar but wicketkeeper Sarfraz Ahmed misjudged the attempted catch.

Pakistan took a 1-0 lead in the three-Test series, with the top-order batsmen extending the form that had given the side a 2-0 series victory over Australia in the preceding series.

The lost only five wickets across two innings to New Zealand’s limited attack, which was playing its first Test on the United Arab Emirates’ slow, turning wickets.

Misbah scored his third successive century, Younis Khan smashed his fourth in five innings and opening batsman Ahmed Shehzad notched a career-best 176 in the first innings before fracturing his skull and was ruled out of the series.

Mohammad Hafeez, who was under pressure after only 48 runs in the three innings against Australia, responded with knocks of 96 and 101 not out; his first Test century in two years.

New Zealand batsmen struggled to adapt on turning wickets. The only positives for the Black Caps were the form of young opener Tom Latham, who scored a maiden Test hundred in the first innings score of 262, and the defiance of Sodhi at the end.

The second Test begins at Dubai from next Monday where the wicket is expected to suit Pakistan spinners more, followed by the last test at Sharjah from Nov. 26.