Southee gets Imam, as New Zealand keep Pakistan quiet in the opening session

Lunch Pakistan 224 for 4 (Shakeel 43*, Sarfaraz 27*, Southee 1-42) trail New Zealand 449 by 225 runs

For once, only wicketkeeper Tom Blundell and the slip fielders behind appealed after Imam played and missed, and convinced their captain to review the not-out verdict. Replays showed a faint nick off the toe end of the bat, and Imam walked back after falling for 96 in the second innings of the first Test. Just one ball before that, Southee had gone short and wide outside off too, only for the Pakistan opener to first think of a jab, before letting it go; and just the next delivery, Imam couldn’t resist his temptation to gift the visitors his wicket.

That remained the only piece of eventful action until then; but with Sarfaraz Ahmed coming in next and legspinner Ish Sodhi operating at the other end, some cat-and-mouse stuff followed. Facing his third ball – and the first from Sodhi – Sarfaraz was beaten on the outside edge when the ball was drifted in on a good length on middle and leg stump, only for it to turn past his bat on off. Two deliveries later, Sarfaraz brought his trademark paddle sweep to get off the mark, fetching it from outside off and placing it behind the wicket on the leg side.

Meanwhile, Southee continued to be effective, as a watchful Shakeel – who had taken 42 balls to score his first run the previous evening – was beaten and kept quiet, with the right-arm seamer angling it across the left-hander while persisting with a full length. However, Shakeel kept ticking relatively quicker against Sodhi, who brought the ball into him.

But Sarfaraz chose to keep pushing at Sodhi, skipping down the pitch, fending away and at times looking tentative, with the tall bowler’s turn, bounce and dip. In the end, it was the batter who took the advantage back during the break, hitting Sodhi for two fours just before lunch, even if the first one came after the legspinner went wide of off, citing Sarfaraz charging down and ultimately jamming it past slip with a horizontal bat.

The DRS then came into play in the final over before the interval too, when Southee reviewed the leg-before call off Matt Henry against Shakeel, only for the good-length ball shown to be pitching just outside leg. The session, though, went to New Zealand for keeping the hosts quiet even if they could prise out only one wicket.