KARACHI: Pakistani bowlers drew flak after setting new records of below-par performance during New Zealand’s first innings of the 2nd Test against the kiwis at Christchurch.
Kiwis declared innings after scoring 659-6, which is the 4th highest ever innings total being scored against Pakistan in Test Cricket, leaving green shirts under fear of an innings defeat.
Only thrice in history teams have scored more runs against Pakistani bowlers in an innings of a Test match; 790-3 by West Indies in 1958, 690 by New Zealand in 2014, and 675-5 by India in 2004.
On the other hand, the 369-run partnership between Kane Williamson and Henry Nicholls is the 4th highest partnership for any wicket being scored against Pakistan and highest against Pakistan in more than 10 years.
300+ partnerships
Pakistani bowlers have conceded three 300+ partnerships in the last nine tests.
There’ve been only 5 triple-century partnerships in Test cricket since the start of January 2019 and three of them are against Pakistan. South Africa and Sri Lanka conceded one each during the last two years.
Pakistani bowlers have overall conceded 15 triple-century partnerships and 13 of them came since the start of the 2000s.
Before the start of this century, Pakistan had conceded only 2 partnerships of over 300 while conceded 10 such partnerships between January 2000 and December 2018.
Zafar Gohar’s debut
Unfortunately, debutant Zafar Gohar conceded 159 runs without taking a wicket which is the worst ever debut by Pakistan and the second-worst ever wicket-less debut ever after 0-163 by Adil Rasheed.
Extras
Pakistani bowlers also conceded 64 runs as extras which include 17 runs in terms of “wide” – the most runs conceded by Pakistani bowlers in an innings ever as wide.
Additionally, 64 extras in innings is also Pakistan’s jointly most extra conceded in an innings.
