New Zealand captain Kane Williamson yesterday scored a fighting half-century on a turning wicket as he rallied his team to 229-7 on the first day of the third and final Test against Pakistan.
Williamson’s 89 off 176 balls was the cornerstone of New Zealand’s revival after leg-spinner Yasir Shah’s (3-62) triple strike had left the visitors reeling at 72-4 before lunch.
B.J. Watling, who added 104 runs with Williamson for the fifth-wicket stand, defied Pakistan for more than four hours to remain unbeaten on 42 off 180 deliveries, hitting a solitary four in his patient knock.
Photo: AFP
Williamson and Watling dug in well and denied Pakistan success in the middle session before the home team got three wickets after tea to check New Zealand’s progress.
Fast bowler Hasan Ali finally broke the (1-46) century partnership when Williamson was caught at short midwicket.
The New Zealand captain used his feet well against the spinners and hit seven fours before falling to Hasan’s reverse swing.
Colin de Grandhomme (20) was smartly held by Asad Shafiq at leg slip only a ball after surviving a stumping attempt by Pakistan skipper Sarfraz Ahmed off Bilal Asif’s (2-57) off-spin.
Tim Southee, playing his first Test of the series, then top-edged Asif before debutant Will Somerville (12 not out) successfully overturned a leg before wicket decision against the off-spinner and saw out the day with Watling.
Asif could have dented New Zealand after lunch, but Watling was dropped by Imam-ul-Haq at forward short-leg as Pakistan could not make further inroads after Shah’s demolition in the first session.
Williamson completed his half-century off 109 balls with three fours when he drove Asif to the covers for three runs, and looked comfortable against the seamers and spinners before he was undone by Hasan.
Earlier, Shah had taken the wickets of Jeet Raval (45) and Ross Taylor (0) off successive deliveries, before Henry Nicholls (1) played on to the leg-spinner after Williamson won the toss and elected to bat.
Shah — playing in his 33rd Test — needs two more wickets to become the quickest bowler in Test history to reach 200 wickets.
Australia leg-spinner Clarrie Grimmett holds the record after taking his 200th wicket in his 36th Test in 1925.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier