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HAMILTON (New Zealand):
Bad light and rain conspired to end the first cricket Test
between New Zealand and Pakistan in a draw here after a fiery
bowling spell by Mohammad Sami had given Pakistan a slim
chance of glory.
Sami destroyed the top order as New Zealand collapsed to seven
for 52 in their second innings before struggling back to 96
for eight, a lead of 196 before the rain intervened with 35
overs left in the day on Monday.
In a game that had been dominated by New Zealand for three
days and then appeared destined for a draw on the fourth, Sami
rewrote the script with a withering spell of pace bowling in
the dying hours.
"There were a lot of jitters and the game was definitely in
the balance," admitted New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming,
who won the man-of-the-match award for his first innings 192.
"We were the only ones who could lose the match and we played
accordingly."
With the morning session lost because of the weather, New
Zealand abandoned hopes of scoring quick runs in search of a
result and the afternoon loomed as a batting exercise.
After 10 overs the score had edged up from four to 13 when
Sami struck, taking out Lou Vincent (4) and Stephen Fleming
(0) in the space of five balls.
In a 13-over spell, in which he fired the ball down repeatedly
in excess of 150 kilometres an hour, Sami took four for 32. He
then took another wicket after tea to finish with the
remarkable figures of five for 44 from 16 overs.
His midas touch extended to the field where a brilliant throw
from the deep had Craig McMillan run out at a time when New
Zealand needed to survive rather than pick up stray runs.
Umar Gul was nearly as menacing as Sami, and had Mark
Richardson caught behind and then Chris Cairns clean bowled in
successive balls. Jacob Oram staved off the hattrick.
When it appeared as if Pakistan could snatch a victory that
had never looked likely over the first four days, Daniel
Vettori and Oram staged a desperate rescue mission with New
Zealand's best partnership of 43.
Oram was New Zealand's top scorer, unbeaten on 23 after 85
minutes at the crease.
The New Zealand side, which had cursed the rain that
interrupted play when they had the momentum on the fourth day,
were in the end thankful for the final downpour bringing the
game to an end.
The second and final Test in the series starts at the Basin
Reserve in Wellington on Friday.
SCOREBOARD
New Zealand 1st innings 563
S. Fleming 192, D. Vettori 135 n.o., Richardson 44; Shabbir
5-117
Pakistan 1st innintgs 463
M. Khan 137, Y. Hameed 80, Inzamam-ul-Haq 51; D. Tuffey 5-87
New Zealand 2nd innings
M. Richardson c Khan b Gul 15
L. Vincent c Farhat b Sami 4
S. Fleming c Khan b Sami 0
S. Styris c Umar b Sami 20
C. McMillan run out 2
C. Cairns b Gul 0
J. Oram not out 23
R. Hart b Sami 0
D. Vettori c Umar b Sami 20
D. Tuffey not out 1
Extras lb4, w1, nb6 11
Total for seven wickets 96
Fall of wickets 1-13, 2-13, 3-42, 4-42, 5-42, 6-47, 7-52,
8-95
Bowling Sami 16-4-44-5 (4nb), Shabbir 10-7-10-0, Gul
7.1-2-25-2 (2nb), Kaneria 4-2-6-0, Razzaq 3-1-7-0
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