New Zealand score thrilling win over defiant Pakistan

The win put New Zealand top of the World rankings and kept alive their chances of making the World Test Championship final

Mount Maunganui: New Zealand beat Pakistan by 101 runs in a thrilling finish to the first Test in Mount Maunganui Wednesday, where the visitors were just 27 balls from escaping with a draw.

The win put New Zealand top of the World rankings and kept alive their chances of making the World Test Championship final.

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After a 165-run fifth-wicket stand by Fawad Alam and Mohammad Rizwan the Test went into the final session with both sides in with a chance to win.

Pakistan needed 158 runs, New Zealand required six wickets and 36 overs remained. New Zealand captain Kane Williamson put his faith in Neil Wagner, bowling on two broken toes, and the youngest of his pace quartet, Kyle Jamieson, to swing the match towards the Black Caps.

Wagner bowled a marathon 11 overs unchanged after tea and Jamieson — on his 26th birthday — bowled nine. They obliged with the wickets of Alam and Rizwan.

When Jamieson had Rizwan lbw for 60 and Wagner removed Alam for 102, New Zealand were into the tail as Pakistan folded from 240 for four to be all out for 271.

Tail-enders Shaheen Afridi and Naseem Shah kept the draw option alive as long as they could, blocking for seven overs in fading light before Naseem was caught and bowled by spinner Mitchell Santner for one, ending Pakistan’s resistance.

New Zealand 431 & 180/5 decl bt Pakistan 239 & 271 in 123.3 overs (Azhar Ali 38, Fawad Alam 102, M. Rizwan 60)

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