New Zealand clinched a narrow four-run win over Pakistan in the first Test played in Abu Dhabi. Pakistan, who are competing in their makeshift home in the UAE were skittled out for just 171 in the second innings as the Kiwis clinched a thrilling win to go 1-0 up in the series.
Having been set a total of 176 runs to take a lead in the series, Pakistan initially well jolted by the wickets of Imam-Ul-Haq, the experienced Mohammad Hafeez and Haris Sohail.
Looking in trouble at 48/3, the Pakistan innings saw a resurgence thanks to an 82-run stand between Azhar Ali and Asad Shafiq. The duo looked all set to hand Pakistan the win as at one point of time, they were cruising comfortably at 130/4.
But there was still a twist left in the tale. Neil Wagner, who recently got to 150 Test wickets for his country broke the mammoth stand that opened the chances for his team to make further inroads into the Pakistan batting.
Thereafter, the entire batting order fell like a house of cards with due credit to Patel. The debutant starred with match-winning figures. The highly-rated Babar Azam, who is one of the upcoming stars with the bat for Pakistan was involved in a mix-up with Azhar Ali that saw him fall short of his crease with Patel taking out the stumps.
Ali henceforth was reduced to just a mere spectator at the other end as he saw the other batsmen walk in and go out in a relatively short span of time as they were reduced to 155/8 at one stage. Patel, who with his left-arm spin could only manage two wickets in the first innings, came back with five in the second (5/59), as he was the wrecker-in-chief, ably assisted by two wickets each from Ish Sodhi and Wagner.
The last wicket to fall was that of Ali, who had done all the hard work so far for his 136-ball knock of 65 runs but eventually, the hosts’ effort fell just short. New Zealand now lead the three-match series 1-0.
Brief score: New Zealand 153 (Williamson 63, Yasir 3-54) and 249 (Watling 59, Nicholls 55, Hasan 5-45, Yasir 5-110) beat Pakistan 227 (Babar 62, Boult 4-54) and 171 (Azhar 65, Patel 5-59) by four runs