Williamson scored his 24th Test fifty
Image courtesy of: Zimbio
New Zealand captain Kane Williamson led by example as he scored a superb 61 to lead his side to a convincing eight-wicket win over Pakistan on the fourth day of the first Test in Christchurch.
The Black Caps’ victory snapped Pakistan’s unbeaten streak when it came to the first Test of a series as prior to this, they had not been beaten in the first Test of their last seven successive Test series.
Starting off the day on 129/7, Pakistan pace bowler Sohail Khan continued to take the attack to New Zealand for a short while before he was ultimately dismissed by Tim Southee for a quickfire 40.
Neil Wagner took out Asad Shafiq three overs later, while Southee took out Rahat Ali for two runs as Pakistan were bowled out for 171, which set New Zealand a target of 105 to win.
Southee, Wagner and Trent Boult picked up three wickets apiece, while debutant Colin de Groundhomme chipped in with one wicket.
Chasing 105 to win, New Zealand lost opener Tom Latham early on for nine runs as he was caught by Shafiq off the bowling of Mohammad Amir.
Williamson and debutant Jeet Raval made up for the loss of Latham with an 89-run partnership, during which Williamson surpassed his fifty.
Just when New Zealand were within touching distance of victory, Williamson suffered a lapse in concentration and threw his wicket away as he was sent packing by Azhar Ali for 61 off 77 balls, which included four boundaries and a six.
Raval finished things off for the Black Caps as he concluded the match undefeated on 36, which came off 89 deliveries and included four boundaries.
Amir and Azhar claimed one wicket each.
Speaking on behalf of captain Misbah-ul-Haq, whose father-in-law is unwell, Azhar expressed his disappointment at the loss, and said: “I think we could have played a bit better in the first innings, on that kind of track if you score a good first innings total, you’re always in the game. We can take some positives out of the game but there’s lot to improve on. We’ll regroup, tours away from home is a challenge, we have done it in the past and we have belief we can bounce back.”
Williamson was thrilled to have gone 1-0 up in the two-Test series, and said: “Very good performance, the boys put the recent defeats behind to win a very good Test. I thought it was a good surface, if it went later into today and tomorrow it’s a good batting surface. The pitch didn’t do a lot yesterday but the boys put it in the right areas. It did a bit in the first innings … Colin on that surface nipping it both ways was superb … six-for on debut, he’ll never forget [that]. And Jeet Raval, quite high pressure situations for him to walk into and do well … We’ll have to look at the surface in Hamilton and see what’s in store.”
De Grandhomme became just the fourth New Zealand player to be named Man of the Match on debut in a Test match after Stephen Fleming, Matthew Sinclair and Mark Craig, and said: “I felt pretty good and confident coming in to the Test match, just tried to take is as another game and that helped. Once I got past the first couple of balls, I felt pretty normal. I felt good [while batting] felt normal. It’ll be hard to better this with the ball but with the bat just focus longer and should be fine.”