ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — New Zealand's tailenders frustrated Pakistan before being bowled out for 274 on the second day of the third and final cricket test on Tuesday.
Pakistan lost opener Mohammad Hafeez without scoring off Trent Boult's fourth delivery to stutter to 0-1 at lunch.
B.J. Watling held New Zealand's first innings together with a gritty unbeaten 77 off 250 balls as Bilal Asif (5-65) wrapped up the innings just before lunch by claiming the three remaining wickets.
It was the off-spinner's second five-wicket haul in his five test matches.
Resuming on 229-7, debutant Will Somerville couldn't add to his overnight 12 but denied Pakistan a breakthrough with his staunch defense for well over an hour.
Watling showed some aggression against fast bowlers and completed his half century off 199 balls by guiding Hasan Ali to the third man boundary.
Watling, 42 overnight, also completed 3,000 test runs when he reached 66, with only four boundaries, in a determined knock of more than 5-1/2 hours as New Zealand added 45 more precious runs.
Asif extracted sharp bounce and turn off the wicket and finally got through Somerville's defenses when he clean bowled the No. 9 batsman.
Asif then claimed the last two wickets in successive overs when Ajaz Patel (6) was caught in the slips and Trent Boult (1) was clean bowled while attempting an ambitious shot.
Leg-spinner Yasir Shah (3-75) couldn't add to his three-wicket burst before lunch on day one and still needs two wickets to become the quickest bowler to complete 200 test wickets.
Boult then provided New Zealand early success when Hafeez edged the left-arm fast bowler low to Tim Southee at second slip before Pakistan had scored.
