WELLINGTON: Mohammad Asif starred with five wickets as Pakistan clinched the second Test by 141 runs against New Zealand, squaring the three-match series at the Basin Reserve on Sunday.
Asif rounded off his four-wicket effort in the first innings with 5-67 as his match haul of nine wickets had New Zealand, chasing a near-impossible 405 to win, folded up for 263 on the fourth day.
Leg-spinner Danish Kaneria took 3-74 and teenage fast bowler Mohammad Aamer returned 2-64 as Pakistan bounced back in the series after New Zealand had won the first Test by a narrow margin.
Resuming day four on 70-3, the hosts faced a huge ask chasing 405 and were admirably led by Ross Taylor, who fell in the nineties for the second time in the series.
Taylor’s 97 was the cornerstone of the New Zealand second innings, an improved effort from their horrible first-innings collapse for 99 runs, which set up Pakistan’s victory.
Captain Daniel Vettori provided brief resistance as New Zealand swelled their total and Iain O’Brien, playing his last Test series, delayed the inevitable with some opportune strokeplay before Asif finished off the proceedings.
Typically, the route to victory was a convoluted one, for dismissing 16 batsmen — they dropped six catches blind penguins wouldn’t have let go in the second innings — is clearly more fun than just ten. Little, however, could be done about a breathtaking counter from Ross Taylor, who left Pakistan dazed and confused and briefly raised hopes of an audacious steal; only after he fell half an hour before lunch, in the nineties for the second Test running, could Pakistan afford to hang a little looser.
