*Official* Pakistan v New Zealand in the UAE 2018

[Bahnz]

Thrilled to see that we came through and wrapped this up. Somerville really did have a magnificent test in the end, pity the catching let him down and denied him a deserved 5fer.

Can hardly believe this. Kane getting a lot of plaudits, and deservedly so. But really, I think the team's success is a sign of a wider confidence spread throughout the unit. Taylor, Boult, Southee, Watling, Nicholls, these guys have all won games for NZ now and more importantly believe they will win if they can keep things close. Bigger challenges lie ahead of them in the next year and a bit, but this is one for all of them to savour, and one that will hopefully help drive them to meet those challenges as best they can.

Hell, there's even a vanishingly small chance that NZ could finish this season as the number 1 ranked team in the world. It won't happen - it would require Pakistan to win a test in SA, and SRL to get at least a draw in one of their tests against each of Australia and South Africa. But the fact that it's even mathematically possible shows just how far this team has come.

Commiserations to trundle and the other Pakistan fans. This has been a wonderfully entertaining series. Yasir Shah is truly a marvel of a bowler. Azhar remains one of my favourite batsmen to watch (I love me some grits). There's obvious talent across the squad that will blossom with some time and care.

Series rankings

Latham 2 - when he was a brat he stunned us all with back to back hundreds on his last tour of UAE. Now it looks like he's spent the intervening 4 years goofing around.
Raval 4 - tried really hard, but he just strikes me as someone who's always going to be out of his depth. Points for trying though
KW 9 - should've converted earlier in the series, but he came through when it counts.
Taylor 3 - As mentioned, trading on past glories a little bit, though he can still pack quite a wallop in short bursts
Nicholls 9 - God damn. Vital contributions in both wins. Looks like total arse until he gets out of single figures, but after that...well he still looks like arse, but the sort of arse that makes you stop what you're doing and stare for an embarrassing amount of time.
Watling 7 - Like Nicholls, crucial contributions with the bat in both wins. Bit sketchy with the gloves, but can't complain -
Colin d G 5 - Oh this is hard to score. I guess it largely depends on what you view his role in the side to be. If you consider him to be a batsman who contributes some handy overs, then 5 is going to seem obscenely generous. If you consider him a genuine bowler and a vital component of a 5-man attack, then you'd say it's harsh. I'm more inclined towards the former, but it can't be denied that his bowling played its part in both wins, and his hacky slogs did set things up nicely today. Always can't shake the feeling that someone's playing a weird joke on opposition sides whenever he has either the bat or ball in hand.
Ajaz Patel 7 - things went a bit quiet after that debut, but he still did a handy support job for future-Trunks in the third test.
Boult 7 - looked an absolute class apart in the first innings of the series, before quieting down a bit as the series went on. Always a menace though, be it with new ball or old even when the wickets didn't come. He is going to get some hilariously cheap wickets this summer.

-
Sodhi 4 - played his part in the first test win, but it can't be denied his wickets were flukey, and he couldn't build pressure. Starting to look like an LO specialist.
Wagner 6 - very similar to the last England series. Heroic effort in the first test, but he seemed kinda drained and floaty in the second. Conditions probably didn't help.
-
Sommerville 8 - excellent performance, led the fightback on day 3 and then wrapped things up on day 5. Hope to see him play for NZ again some time.
Southee 7 - 4 wickets probably flattered him, but he generally bowled well, his strongest performance outside of favourable swinging conditions in a long time.

 

[veganbob]

Lol at giving jeet raval a 4, he has had a solid series. Also how is he out of his depth? Most consistent nz opener since richardson.

Also ajaz should be 8 atleast, he won us that first test.
How does souther get the same score as him?

 

[harsh.ag]

For Pakistan:

Hafeez - 1. Managed to face less balls per innings than Bilal Asif. Bowled 10 tight overs in the series. No wicket though. Not a good farewell. Bye Prof.
Imam - 1. Marginally better than Hafeez with the bat. Not saying much. Pakistan need a better opening pair.
Ali - 8.5. The main stay of Pakistani batting. Would have got them a victory in the first test had the rest of the line up not decided to implode. Played a good hand in all 3 games.
Sohail - 6. Got a match winning century and a couple of decent 30s. Not much more you could ask from a relatively inexperienced guy.
Shafiq - 6. Same as Sohail. Looked like he had managed to finally get going from his 40+ starts with the century in this test but couldn't press on the advantage.
Azam - 8. Seems to have turned a corner. Hit a century and two solid 50s, both under pressure. Gets half a style point for being magnificent to watch.
Sarfraz - 4. Lacklustre series with the bat. Almost as bad as the openers. Is a solid keeper though. Should hold a seminar on fourth innings chasing for his team.
Bilal - 3.5. Not sure why he is in the team. Had a horror first two tests. Took a five fer in this one (hence the points), but 2 wickets from 5 innings is less than mediocre.
Yasir - 9.5. Star of the show without a doubt. Would have got a perfect score had he managed to dislodge the Williamson-Nicholls partnership early. Bossed it otherwise.
Hasan - 8. Was going to give him 8.5 as he was by far the best pacer of the series. 13 wickets @ 21 striking at 45. Half a point deducted for the mindless shot in the first test which might have cost Pakistan the game.
Abbas - 3.5. Bit of a fall from grace. Just 2 wickets in 2 games., that too all in one innings. Kept it really tight though and built up pressure in all the innings, helping Shah and Hasan. Hope he manages to turn up in SA.
Shaheen - 4. Some really good bowling in this test interspersed with harmless stuff. One for the future.

If either of the openers had worked, Pakistan would have probably won the series. If the tail knew how to wag a bit, they would have won the series.

 

[randycricfreak]

Well done NZ, great series win.

Though Manjrekar will belittle it soon by claiming the opposition were rubbish.

Manjrekar is a cheap ass shot.

 

[Slifer]

World rankings atm imo:
India
Rsa
Eng
Nz
Oz
Pak
Sl
Bang
Daylight
Wi
Zim

 

[Blakey]

i don't think i can have much more of a man-crush on kane, the shoutout to hafeez omg

What did he say?

 

[BeeGee]

So good from NZ. Fantastic stuff. That Kane-Nichols stand should go down as one of the all time great series turning partnerships.

Indeed. They came together with NZ 60/4 and in big trouble.

I live in perpetual fear of the day Taylor announces his retirement from test cricket because we will never be able to replace him. Players with his talent come along once in a generation for NZ.
Taylor had a poor series and Nicholls filled the void. Nicholls' continuing development as a test batsman is helping to ease my fear. When Taylor does throw in the towel, it would be wonderful if Nicholls could move up to four and allow a new batsman to come into the side in the less exposed five slot. I'd love to see big Williamson - Nicholls partnerships become a theme in a post Taylor world.

 

[NZTailender]

Indeed. They came together with NZ 60/4 and in big trouble.

I live in perpetual fear of the day Taylor announces his retirement from test cricket because we will never be able to replace him. Players with his talent come along once in a generation for NZ.
Taylor had a poor series and Nicholls filled the void. Nicholls' continuing development as a test batsman is helping to ease my fear. When Taylor does throw in the towel, it would be wonderful if Nicholls could move up to four and allow a new batsman to come into the side in the less exposed five slot. I'd love to see big Williamson - Nicholls partnerships become a theme in a post Taylor world.

imho Taylor's batting this whole series - the poor shots, the laissez faire approach - was a mastermind genius tactic to show the likes of Nicholls that they can't rely on Kane and him to do all the run scoring in the team. I mean, Kane's obviously too nice to take such a risky tactic but Ross the Boss was confident it would pay off, and it did

 

[NZTailender]

Williamson and Taylor are 76 partnership runs away from reaching 3000 together. 2nd on the list is Astle and Fleming on 1951. These two have been huge for us.

 

[harsh.ag]

imho Taylor's batting this whole series - the poor shots, the laissez faire approach - was a mastermind genius tactic to show the likes of Nicholls that they an't rely on Kane and him to do all the run scoring in the team. I mean, Kane's obviously too nice to take such a risky tactic but Ross the Boss was confident it would pay off, and it did

Followed up by a double ton against SL. With an able, ugly hundred by Nicholls in tow.

 

[NZTailender]

I think this is my favourite series win. The one against England earlier this year doesn't really count since it was only 2 Tests. Beating a basket case side who still tend to pummel teams at home, in conditions incredibly foreign to their own, is pretty special. I can't emphasise enough how good Kane's captaincy was this series. In terms of the bowling, it seemed like he had everything finely tuned and planned out. Everything was timed just as sweetly as his batting. It was really interesting to see the subtle dimension of his game compared to the outlandish and obvious operations of his predecessor. Absolute unit.

Apart from the 2nd Test when we ran into a very disciplined team coming off a couple of horrible collapses, the bowling unit excelled. And they didn't really rely on Boult either! In fact, Trent had a quiet series after his first innings first test spell, picking up 3 wickets across 4 innings thereafter. So stoked that the new spinners played such a vital role in our win. Spinners from NZ on SC who haven't been Dan Vettori have mostly been horses for courses, we need a spinner, type of selection, expected to magically produce as much turn as their local rivals. They tend to never come off though. These guys though! Was impressed by Somerville's experience. Ajaz is good, so good that when he's bad he didn't really get tonked, which cannot be said for the likes of Sodhi, Craig and Astle. These two have basically blown those guys out of the pecking order. Tough to choose who should play at home - personally I'd give them a game each, but I'd retain Somerville first.

Batsmen ratings:
Raval: 5 - almost cracked it a few times but also dreadfully unlucky. He did his job as an opener generally and soaked up deliveries.
Latham: 2 - pretty poor series and statistically he was fairly similar to Raval in terms of balls faced (which is important for an opener) but the ways he got out were diabolical at times. He's good but needs a kick up the bum.Half his runs in the series were in one innings.
Williamson: 9 - WAG. Don't really need to comment more
Taylor: 4 - wanted more, expected more, got one decent knock and a couple of starts but needed to stand up more.
Nicholls: 9 - pleasantly surprised by him this tour. Was expecting one decent knock but he turned up with a century and two fifties. Always feels like a few bad tests away from being axed but he's cemented himself for a few years here.
Watling: 7.5 - Mr Scrap. His first innings knock will be forever overshadowed by Kane and Nicholl's in the 2nd but without him Pakistan would've been a stronger position throughout. It was the key, pivotal moment that gave us a foundation to work from.
de Grandhomme: 1 - I was going to give him 2 purely for the last test, mostly the last innings, where his quick runs were needed and he pulled it off. Woeful the rest of the time. Will probably feast on the hapless Sri Lankans this summer though but on overseas tours he could be a liability.

Bowlers:
Boult: 6.5 - seems harsh but after one good innings he mostly bowled without result for the rest of the tour. Dude is immense and is quickly becoming one of our ATG, and seam bowlers in the UAE generally play second fiddle to spinners, but was kinda hoping for more. However he was tight the rest of the time.
Wagner: 6 - played an important role in the 2nd innings of the first test when combined with Ajaz got us to victory. Didn't have much of an effect in the 2nd test.
Southee: 7 - only played one Test but bowled pretty well and shared the spoils in the last innings for the win. Did what was needed of him.
de Grandhomme: 7 - Weird to give him a better rating than Boult but he has a better average, strike rate and economy rate for the series and his wickets were more than handy, usually top order players too. Continues to surprise with the ball for someone who barely touches mid 120s.
Sodhi: 4 - obviously still needs work. Bowled 1 maiden the entire series, far too hittable and iirc 2 of his 3 wickets were from full tosses. 2nd choice to Astle as a leg spin bowler, and probably 5th in line now.
Patel: 8 - what a pleasant surprise this guy was. Leading wicket taker in FC cricket for a while actually translates it to international level. Not sure how he'll go as 'stock' spinner on surfaces not benefitting spinners, but I'm interested to see how he'd turn out. Worth persevering with.
Somerville: 9 - ****ing unit this guy. Knew literally nothing about him other than being a CW meme and I had thought he'd be another McGain but he bowled with maturity, control and importantly took actual ****ing wickets without going at 4s unlike our previous offie. Hope he can give us a few years of good service. Interested to see him play at home.

 

[nzfan]

Folks didn't believe me when I said we have enough batting depth to win the series. Can't blame them, we have generally under performed with the bat in the past tours.

That said we have to develop 2-3 good test quality batsman still. Particularly at the top of the order. Tom Latham is best suited in the middle order in my opinion.

Keeper batsman is no worries, we have plenty of stock. I'll also have to say the same about spin options.

Fast bowling stock, again no worries.

If we can somehow get couple of solid openers and one good middle order bar that can bowl a bit we'll go places in the next decade.

Oh wait, we'll hardly play test cricket so it doesn't matter :-)

 

[NZTailender]

Followed up by a double ton against SL. With an able, ugly hundred by Nicholls in tow.

Ross will probably score like 500 runs in the Sri Lankan series.

 

[Blain]

Fantastic stuff BC's, huge effort. Nicholl's has calmed my nerves of batting at 5 in tests (still don't think he should be 6 in ODI's, top 4 of nothing IMO), and Patel and Sommerville showing they can play test cricket.

There are still big question marks on the side though, both openers were bad-average, CDG showing he is a flat track bully with the bat, and now we have far too many spinners to think about. Especially now Santner is back. Has Sodhi slipped behind Patel? He was pretty ****. In NZ we'll be playing 3.5 seamers, Santner with his control and batting make him an easy selection.

 

[hendrix]

I know I know I should enjoy their tears etc....but in the main match report on Cricinfo we have this whingeing mess of an article.

Fancy a team wins its first series overs against Pakistan in nearly 50 years, with huge contributions from one of the best batsmen in the world, and two veteran debutants and you come up with pearlers like this:

A remarkable turnaround from New Zealand produced a result that is more a heist than a series win.
...
Pakistan could manage none of the commitment, quality, mental strength or dynamism of the visitors in just about every single moment that mattered across both Tests in Abu Dhabi. It seems a shocking claim, but in truth, they should have walked away with a 3-0 win. Instead, they ceded this series to a side that refused to believe it was beaten against one that, worryingly, looks like it has forgotten how to win.

 

[Flem274*]

that's the sort of material you pin on the dressing room wall and use to build a side hungry hungry hungry for delicious crying. honestly ross should sit there at slip reminding batsmen how much they'll cop it if they lose to nz

 

[Burner]

Gee that's next level terrible. Like get fired terrible imo.

 

[Flem274*]

i've left a very graceful fb comment of my own under cricinfos post of that article feasting on the tears

 

[straw man]

How do we decide which spin bowler plays in the first test vs. Sri Lanka?

I don't know, but it's going to be rough on whichever of Ajaz or Somerville misses out. I do think Ajaz should have incumbency based on being selected first, winning his first test and having three seasons as top (or near top?) Plunket Shield wicket taker to push his case. Somerville a much more recent blow-in.

That Somerville can bat a bit might sway the selectors. And I do wonder if his height and style of spin bowling might work better than Ajaz's on home pitches.

Sodhi 4 - played his part in the first test win, but it can't be denied his wickets were flukey, and he couldn't build pressure. Starting to look like an LO specialist.

Agree, and probably the same story for Astle.

 

[Burgey]

And lol at Rameez Raja yelling out “A-hoy!!!” as Kane was taking the trophy and Kane turning around thinking Rameez was reprimanding him.

And then Kane proceeds to ignore the sponsors and throw away their banner.

If that happened in India there would be effigies burned and his name would be written on the side of an ass.

Congrats NZ. That’s their best test win since I’ve been following them, given the conditions and the state of the game. Fmd at one point it looks like Pakistan might be chasing 80 odd.

Williamson is pure class as a player. Great technician and scores all around the wicket in all conditions. If he tops this series as a personal achievement then I hope I get to see it.