Santner claws VICTORY
One small leap for Mitchell Santner, one giant step towards Lord’s for his New Zealand team. With his left paw thrust into the air, Santner jumped to pluck a return catch off Pakistan’s No 11 Naseem Shah, as New Zealand won an incredible first test with 4.3 overs to spare at Mt Maunganui yesterday.
“I got pretty nervous at the end,” Santner admitted, after he was thrust the ball when New Zealand’s longtime spearheads Tim Southee and Trent Boult could not budge the lastwicket pair.
“The seamers up front handed the baton on, kept applying the pressure and we stuck in for a long period.”
Captain Kane Williamson said he tossed the ball to Santner more in the expectation of a leg before or an edge than a return catch.
“He middled that one and when we saw it stick, I don’t think there’s many other players on the park that were going to be able to reel that in. It was a fantastic buzz after five days of real test match toil,” Williamson said.
The victory takes New Zealand to a provisional No 1 ranking in test cricket, although it will not become official until the end of the series.
An inspired Pakistan rearguard, a docile wicket and a tiring attack looked certain to conspire against a New Zealand victory until a bowling partnership that was as much about heart as it was skill changed the course of the series.
Kyle Jamieson and Neil “Three Toes” Wagner came together when Pakistan not only looked like they could save the match, but possibly have a dash at winning, and bowled themselves into the ground and their team to the brink of victory.
When they joined forces Fawad Alam and Mohammad Rizwan were not only set but starting to dominate. They were in the midst of a partnership that would accumulate 165 gutsy runs and span 63.2 overs.
A game New Zealand had dominated for four days was bleeding away.
Out of nowhere, Jamieson smashed one into Rizwan’s front pad and even though the on-field umpire
Wayne Knights didn’t like it, the offfield technology was more easily seduced, and Rizwan was on his way.
Pakistan were 240-5 and the door was ever-so-slightly ajar as long as they could remove Fawad, who was clinging on to the handle on the other side for all he was worth.
His century was all about tenacity and denial, but Wagner can have a strange effect on even the most sober of batsmen. He dropped short, again, from around the wicket and Fawad gloved through to keeper BJ Watling.
It was Watling’s 250th dismissal, it wouldn’t be his last.
The sliver of light was now a shaft and Jamieson struck again, Yasir Shah weakly prodding to Southee in the gully. On a roll, Wagner had first innings hero Faheem Ashraf edging to Watling.
It was a turnaround for the ages and double-handedly kept New Zealand’s hopes of a World Test Championship in London alive.
By the time they were prised from the bowling crease Wagner had bowled 11 on the trot, Jamieson nine. Wagner’s return in that spell was 11 overs, five maidens, 28 runs, two wickets; Jamieson’s 9-4-6-2.
Fill their ice baths with Moet. Santner, who had yet to cover himself in glory in the fourth innings, trapped Mohammad Abbas in front with an arm ball for one.
Given Shaheen Shah Afridi had been cracked on the helmet by Wagner and looked vulnerable, and Naseem Shah had a test batting average of three, the chances of the last pair holding out 11 overs looked remote, but this had been a day of wild plot turns.
To even get to the last hour had required a profound reversal of fortune after Pakistan lost their first two wickets within three overs of their second innings without a run on the board before tea on the fourth day.
Even on the final day, which they started on 75-3, victory looked a formality when Boult fooled Pakistan’s most accomplished batsman, Azhar Ali, with a two-card trick in his first over of the day to make it 75-4.
That was a signal for a quick day at the office, but the signs were all wrong. In fact, the signs could not be relied on all day.
Test cricket, go figure.