Bond bursts back in style

Debutant saves Pakistan from brink of collapse

First test: Black Caps v Pakistan

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AP Zoom

Pakistan's Mohammad Asif (left) bowls New Zealand's Peter Fulton for 29 on the first day of the first cricket test at University Oval in Dunedin.

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Shane Bond's still got it.

Forget any talk of him being not quite the bowler he once was and just sit back and enjoy the video of the seven-over spell he produced after lunch against Pakistan yesterday.

Despite being absent for two years and missing 20 tests during that time, Bond found an extra gear after the break, ripping out three wickets in 10 balls.

The 34-year-old has put New Zealand on the front foot with his 4-93 but the pitch is unresponsive and the ball dying, so if you have draw on your ticket you should feel comfortable about a collect.

It was a wonderful day's cricket at the University Oval so much so that Bond was upstaged for the individual honours by dashing young debutant Umar Akmal.

With his country in dire straits and his older brother standing at the non striker's end, 19-year-old Umar scorched to a brilliant century.

In doing so Umar became the 11th Pakistan batsman to score a hundred on debut, and as luck would have it another on that list, the Dunedin-domiciled Billy Ibadulla, has been at the Oval this week.

Pakistan were 85-5 before Umar and his older brother, Kamran Akmal, launched a furious counter-attack on the bowling.

They added 176 in 170 minutes and 257 balls, some of the strokeplay out of this world.

Umar never stopped to take a breath. Even as he drew near his richly deserved milestone the foot was to the floor.

He went from 87 to 101 in the space of four balls from Iain O'Brien and celebrated by bowing to the turf, hugging his brother and then a salute skywards.

The New Zealand bowlers were stunned mullets. They had the test at their fingertips until a 19-year-old ripped it away with a flashing blade.

For a moment, a rare double was on the cards, that of brothers scoring hundreds together. But Kamran got caught up in the excitement on 82, charged the under-par Daniel Vettori and a catch flew to slip.

Fittingly, Bond removed Umar with the second new ball for 129 because he too deserved a spot on the stage and Pakistan finished the third day on 307-8, still 122 runs behind New Zealand.

Bond's opening six-over spell was in keeping with his solid comeback but after lunch he reminded everyone what we have missed by removing Mohammad Yousuf, Fawad Alam and Shoaib Malik through those fast bowling traits of pace, fire and accuracy.

The caught and bowled of Yousuf was quite something, diving forward to scoop a low offering.

Bond was clocked at 151kmph during his post lunch burst.

"We all got a bit of a shock how flat the wicket was when we went out with new ball so I just had to make a conscious effort to run in hard and bowl aggressively – that's all it was," Bond said.

"Sometimes you leak a few runs doing that but you give yourself the best chance of taking wickets.

"Things went my way in that spell, they didn't in other spells but overall it was a pretty good day for me."

Bond said his body come through the experience well, though he had not planned to bowl as many overs as he did (24).

- © Fairfax NZ News