Latham-Conway's unbroken stand answers back Pakistan on Day 2
Devon Conway and Tom Latham shared an unbroken 165-run stand
Another day of Test cricket in Pakistan and another day where batters ruled like formidable kings of a prolific land. It started off with Babar Azam being on 161 but ended with Tom Latham and Devon Conway taking the New Zealand score to 165 for zilch.
The Pakistan captain knicked behind a delivery off Tim Southee, but then it was all about Agha Salman. He first shared a tiring stand with Nauman Ali, who scored a 7 off 75 deliveries, and then batted with the tail-enders to notch his maiden Test century.
Agha Salman's maiden ton helped the home team reach a total of 438 runs after batting for 130.5 overs. But as the trend has been on the flat tracks of Pakistan, the Kiwi batters replied, and they just batted and batted and batted.
Pakistan tried every possible tactic present in the book, but the Blackcaps were simply answering them with their compact techniques. The Kiwi duo were brilliant with rotating the strike and putting the bad balls away.
In the process, Conway and Latham not only put 165 runs on the board, but they are firmly batting unbeaten 82 and 78 respectively.
Things could have been different if Babar had reviewed a caught-behind off Nauman Ali's bowling to send back Conway. However, that wasn't the case. Babar too, got lucky on the first day when Daryl Mitchell dropped him in the slip.
Later, the 31-year-old left-hander in the day also became the fastest New Zealander (19 Innings) to 1000 Test runs, surpassing John Reid (20) and Mark Richardson (20).
Brief Score
Pakistan - 438/10 (130.5 overs)
Babar Azam - 161, Agha Salman - 103
Tim Southee - 3/69 (25.5), Michael Bracewell - 2/72 (24)
New Zealand - 165/0 (47 overs)
Devon Conway - 82*, Tom Latham - 78*
Babar Azam - 0/11 (3), Mir Hazma - 0/23 (7)
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