WELLINGTON:Pakistan captain Misbah-ul-haq produced a man of the match performance to ensure his side batted out the final day to draw the second Test against New Zealand Wednesday and claim their first series victory since 2006.Misbah finished the day on 70 not out, following on from his 99 in the first innings, as Pakistan reached 226 for five at the close of play, 48 runs short of their victory target of 274, to wrap up the two-match series 1-0. Adnan Akmal was two not out as the visitors claimed their first series win since they beat the West Indies 2-0 at home five years ago.“It’s pretty pleasing, we’ve been through some rough times but we’ve played some really good cricket in this series, we’ve been very disciplined,” Pakistan coach Waqar Younis told reporters. “Full credit to Misbah and the boys, I think they all stuck to the task and managed to win the series.”
Misbah had shared in an 118-run stand with Younus Khan (81) — their second century-stand of the match — after New Zealand had threatened to spoil the visitors’ day when they reduced them to 42-3 in the first session. Chris Martin was particularly aggressive in the first session, taking 2-24 off nine overs and had the Pakistani batsmen frantically trying to see him off. New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori also provided some concerning moments for the visitors, introducing himself in the eighth over and getting bounce from the harder ball and some turn out of the footmarks.Misbah and Younus, however, slowly but assuredly ground down the attack and for long periods during the session between lunch and tea looked to have given up any pretence of chasing down the target before they slowly began to increase the scoring rate. New Zealand were given the slightest hope of a final session victory when Younus was caught by Reece Young off Tim Southee in the final over before tea – Nation
