On day 4 of the first Test in Karachi, New Zealand crossed the 600-run mark in the first innings in reply to Pakistan’s 438. Kane Williamson played an incredible unbeaten 200-run knock along with Ish Sodhi, who scored 65 runs. While Williamson was in control throughout his stay, Sarfaraz Ahmed did something unfamiliar behind the stumps which attracted a lot of attention.
The third ball of the 160th over bowled by Nauman Ali was down the leg side. Williamson did not try to play it before the ball went through Sarfaraz’s legs to make it look embarrassing. To make matters worse, the ball went on to kiss his helmet which was on the ground before it went to the fence. As a result, New Zealand were rewarded with five penalty runs as per Cricket Governing Body rules.
Watch the video here:
5 penalty runs for New Zealand!!!!pic.twitter.com/VBqruiHeQt
— Johns. (@CricCrazyJohns) December 29, 2022
Since coming to the field, Sarfaraz is having a terrible outing with the big gloves, which includes dropped catches, and misjudgment for DRS calls, among many other things.
New Zealand’s batting looked solid
Talking about the match, Pakistan opted to bat first after winning the toss. However, after a bad start by the openers, the Babar Azam-led side pulled off a remarkable comeback with the help of their middle-order batters. Babar himself led from the front and smashed a brilliant ton. He scored 161 runs. Agha Salman was the other centurion for the team as the team ended up on 438.
Coming in to bat, New Zealand openers notched up fifties and were not troubled enough by the bowlers. Conway could not convert his fifty into a hundred but Tom Latham did and he fell soon after scoring 113 runs, which included 10 fours.
Coming in at no.3, New Zealand skipper, Kane Williamson gave a couple of stumping opportunities that Sarfaraz didn’t take and the former skipper made them pay by notching up his 25th Test ton which was later converted to the double ton. Coming in at no.8, Ish Sodhi showed his batting ability and scored a brilliant half-century. The Kiwis declared on the score of 612 after losing 9 wickets and have the lead of 174 runs.
