Akmal brothers perform rescue act at Dunedin

Thursday, November 26, 2009 -- Pakistan ended the third day’s play at 307/8 in reply to New Zealand’s 429 all out in the first innings of the first test match at Dunedin. Earlier, New Zealand had been shot out for the addition of only 21 more runs by their opposition.

Pakistan knew that they had a struggle on their hand when they lost half their side for a paltry 85. None of the top order batsmen had much clue about the bowling of Shane Bond in particular as they lost wickets at regular intervals to stare down the barrel. Both the openers, Imran Farhat and Khurram Manzoor departed by the time the score was 43 and captain Mohammad Yousuf, Fawad Alam and Shoaib Malik soon followed to the bowling of Bond and it looked like the side would soon be facing a follow-on.

However, the Akmal brothers – Umar and Kamran – had other ideas and got going together. Umar was dropped very early in his innings, and he took full toll of that spilt chance to get to his century. His brother gave him great support and as they added almost 200 for the sixth wicket. It was only a tired shot from Kamran that led to his dismissal for 82, whereas Umar scored 129 before cutting one from Bond into the hands of Peter Fulton at the point boundary.

Pakistan lost Umar Gul to Daniel Vettori and were 122 runs adrift of the Kiwi total with two wickets standing, when the play was called off. There are two more days to go, and if the rain keeps away the chances of a result look possible in this test match.