It was yet another tough day in the office for the visitors as Pakistan started off from where they had left on day 1. The New Zealanders were made to toil hard under the sun as Pakistan dominated another day of Test cricket and made it yet another day to relish for their fans back home. New Zealand, on the other hand, may want to revisit their strategy and come out as a completely different unit tomorrow.

By Farid Khan (10th November, 2014)

Ahmed Shehzad and Azhar Ali commenced proceedings on day 2 in a confident manner, reaching their milestones of 150 and 50 respectively in the early overs of the first session. The New Zealand bowlers were running out of ideas as nothing seemed to work for them. They finally got rid of Ahmed Shehzad in the 116th over but in a rather unusual manner, when he failed to execute a bouncer, which resulted in him falling and his bat hitting the stumps as he was struck on tge head by a Corey Anderson bouncer. He left the crease in pain, having scored 176. Pakistan were 347/2 at luunch.

The in form Younis Khan was the next batsman to walk in. Pakistan consolidated for a few overs, before Azhar Ali saw his stumps being rattled by Ish Sodhi. He departed after scoring 87 runs. In came Pakistan's skipper Misbah-ul-Haq to join another stalwart in Younis Khan at the crease. Younis Khan made sure the scoreboard kept ticking over with boundaries after regular intervals. Not too long afterwards, Misbah-ul-Haq joined the party and accelerated the innings. Misbah-ul-Haq was dropped twice off Ish Sodhi and he capitalized by scoring yet another half century. His partner, Younis Khan, had already reached the same milestone by the time tea was taken, with Pakistan at 471/3.

The fortunes didn't change for the New Zealand’s bowlers after tea and it looked as if they were waiting for Pakistan to declare, not making much effort themselves. Both Younis Khan and Misbah-ul-Haq obliged and made sure the New Zealanders had to face an uphill task when it was their turn to bat. Younis Khan brought up his 28th century, while Misbah-ul-Haq raised his bat for his 8th, his 3rd in successive innings, as Pakistan declared on a mammoth 566/3.

In doing so, they tumbled a few records. It was the first time ever in the history of Test cricket that the top five batsmen of any team crossed the 80-run mark. It was also the first time that Pakistan had three 150-plus-run partnerships in their innings.

Late in the day, the New Zealand openers came out to bat and successfully managed to see off the final 7 overs of the day, which could be considered their only achievement in the two long days of Test cricket. New Zealand ended the day on 15/0, trailing Pakistan by a further 551 runs.

It was yet another tough day in the office for the visitors as Pakistan started off from where they had left on day 1. The New Zealanders were made to toil hard under the sun as Pakistan dominated another day of Test cricket and made it yet another day to relish for their fans back home. New Zealand, on the other hand, may want to revisit their strategy and come out as a completely different unit tomorrow.

Discuss!