Pakistan conclude their home Test match season this week when they go up against New Zealand in the second of two Tests with the series on the line after the opening match in Karachi petered out into a tame draw.
The two teams meet in Karachi again from Monday with World Test Championship points up for grabs as well as confidence and momentum restored for the cricket which is to come for each of them throughout 2023.
Pakistan
You got the impression that after being blown away by England prior to the opening match of this series, the priority for Pakistan in that first game was to ensure they had control of the contest in the early stages and such was the time it took them to compile their first innings they were going to have to do something pretty bonkers to lose from there. To be fair they did lose a bit of control of things but once they wiped out their first innings deficit a draw was always likely.
Pakistan batted better in that first game than they did against England but they are still having real issues with the ball. They changed all their selection hierarchy before that first game but they still only had the same pool of players to pick from. Those same players will need to go again here and they either need to improve with the ball or score runs a lot quicker in order to buy time to bowl New Zealand out. That comes with a risk though.
New Zealand
New Zealand will have had a few doubts and question marks over them heading into the opening match. The last time they were seen playing Test cricket was in England where they were blown away and since then they changed captain and were playing in conditions that were alien to them. Those sorts of things can test the character of a team but to be fair to the Kiwis they stood up and showed what they were all about in that first game.
Even though they gave up a pretty significant first innings score to Pakistan, New Zealand never gave up hope of winning the match and trying to come up with ways to do it and I always think a team feel better about itself when that is the case rather than when they are just going through the motions. If New Zealand can flip the chart and bat first and pile up the runs themselves in this one they could find scoreboard pressure yields dividends for them.
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Team News
It was a bit of a surprise that Pakistan didn’t use Hasan Ail in the opening game just to bring some experience to their bowling attack if nothing else. They might well go down that route for this deciding game.
New Zealand might consider playing another seamer over a spinner just to share the workload better when the conditions suit the seamers. Matt Henry would be the natural choice to come in potentially for Ajaz Patel.
Betting
There is a bit of talk that there might be more bounce in this surface but I find that a little hard to believe that will be the case when you consider the last two Test matches Pakistan have played over the last few weeks have been on this ground. Groundsmen need quality time to prepare decent pitches and this one hasn’t had that long so I would expect the spinners to be in the game still. Even if there is bounce for the seamers the spinners will get the same.
That makes me think that Ish Sodhi can be relevant in this match as well. He took 2/82 and 6/86 in the first Test and if the Kiwis drop a spinner his workload should increase a little which gives him a better chance of covering a 2.5 first innings wickets line at a big looking 6/4. Four other wickets fell to spin in that first innings in the opening game but not when Sodhi was bowling. This square has to be getting tired so I’ll take that 6/4 on Sodhi getting three first innings wickets.
Tips
Back I.Sodhi – Over 2.5 first innings wickets for a 3/10 stake at 2.50 with Coral
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