Kane to the rescue
CRICKET
CHRISTCHURCH: Kane Williamson is remarkable.
With apologies to the late Martin Crowe, Ross Taylor and others, the artistry allied to the consistency of his batting has reached levels we have not seen previously from a New Zealander.
He ended an absorbing day two unbeaten on 112, in the midst of a 215run partnership with hometown hero Henry Nicholls, who is battling a calf injury but survived to be 89.
At 286 for three, New Zealand is well on top as it looks to sail past Pakistan's 297.
The Black Caps were in trouble at 74 for three and trying to claw their way to parity when Nicholls hung the washing out to Shaheen Shah Afridi and Shan Masood gratefully accepted the chance at second slip.
Nicholls turned on his heel and left.
The call came through from third umpire Wayne Knights. Shaheen had overstepped — no ball.
In that finemargin moment, the match changed.
Nicholls followed Williamson's lead and left when he could leave, defended under his eyes and scored when the opportunity presented itself.
They had some luck, sure, but no more than Pakistan enjoyed on day one.
While the scores at the end of the day may look similar, the cricket was markedly different.
Whereas New Zealand went full, often too full, in the search for wickets on day one, conceding quick runs in the process, Pakistan was happy to stay back of a length.
It was hard to argue as the visiting side pegged New Zealand back after the loss of both openers.
The twoToms opening partnership had looked LaZBoy comfortable against the new ball and then they found themselves dismissed within minutes of bringing up a 50run partnership.
Blundell (16) was the first to go, caught on the knee roll when only half forward. Faheem Ashraf's appeal was turned down by Chris Gaffaney but balltracking had it catching enough of leg stump to overturn.
Latham quickly followed as Shaheen Shah Afridi was brought quickly back into the attack to go at new man Williamson.
Instead it was Latham (33), who poked at a ball and saw it dropped by Shan Masood — the start of an ugly theme — only for Haris Sohail to react brilliantly at first slip.
Ross Taylor came and went for 12 and in came Nicholls, in came Shaheen, in came the edge that could have changed the match . . . and in came the third umpire.
Mohammad Rizwan has many admirers with his gutsy batting and considered leadership, but this was a day he got it badly wrong.
With half an hour to go to tea and Williamson and Nicholls struggling for any fluency, Rizwan did not just take his foot off the throat but gave the batsmen a lozenge and a nice cup of tea to go with it.
Out of the attack went Shaheen, Faheem and Mohammad Abbas, their best operators, and on came parttimers Masood, Sohail and new cap spinner Zafar Gohar.
Williamson, in particular, used the opportunity to move from second gear to overdrive, clipping and pulling through the legside.
By the time Rizwan went back to his front liners, Williamson and Nicholls were set.
They went to tea on 145 for three and Williamson was in a hurry after the resumption.
In one over from teenager Naseem Shah he hit four boundaries.
That took him from 78 to 94. A hook for four and leg glance to the boundary took him past 100 for the first time since the last test, which was the first time since the test before that.
He should have been caught for 107 — yes, it was Masood again — and a quirk of cricket's rules saw him survive a close run out call on the same score.
Nicholls was dropped on 86, a sitter to Rizwan that summed up the skipper's day.