New Zealand v Pakistan, 1st Test, Dunedin, 3rd day

Chris Martin followed his 26th Test duck - now joint-fifth on the list - with two quick wickets to put New Zealand in the box seat on the third day. After a 24-run tenth-wicket stand between Shane Bond and Iain O'Brien frustrated Pakistan, their top order proved to be technically ill-equipped on what had become a good, flat batting surface. There was neither seam movement nor swing, unlike on day one when the Pakistan seamers got the ball to jag around significantly. Both the wickets fell to poor shots, brought about by disciplined and smart bowling, backed up by alert fielding.

Khurram Manzoor was the first to go, done in by his guard outside the leg stump. Barely had he settled in when he looked to cut Martin in the fourth over. It wasn't a wide delivery, but because he stands outside leg he ended up playing far away from his body, and played the ball on. With two men given to shuffling across, Imran Farhat and Fawad Alam, batting together, New Zealand bowled perfect lengths, neither allowing the batsmen to drive nor cut.

This was the first windy day of the match, and Daniel Vettori gave Martin only three overs into it. He went to his into-the-wind specialist, O'Brien, in the eighth over, and alternated between Bond and Martin at the other end. O'Brien was just as effective from the disadvantaged end, getting the odd delivery to bounce extra and often hitting the shoulder of the bat. With no freebies on offer, Alam almost ran himself out, hesitatingly taking a single to point. He was on 2 then.

Bond built up hostile pace from the other end, and went for 13 in his six overs. Martin took over from Bond's end, and removed Farhat soon. Again, he was amply assisted by the batsman here: Farhat moved across the stumps, played across the line and down the wrong line. With three dropped catches and a failure at the top, you would have thought the Test couldn't have gone worse for him. But Farhat wasted one of the two reviews available to Pakistan.

To make things worse for the visitors, Mohammad Yousuf didn't look comfortable at all, surviving two edges - one over the second slip and one short of it - in the minutes before lunch. The flow of play was in keeping with the New Zealand tail's stay at the crease. Bond and O'Brien kept Pakistan in the field for longer than they would have wanted to.

Bond did the most damage, hitting a four and a six off full deliveries before Mohammad Asif went back to bowling shorter lengths and finally got a tickle down the leg side. Bond managed 22. The move to bring Saeed Ajmal on proved smart, as he beat Martin comprehensively with a doosra. It was Martin's sixth duck in six innings against Pakistan. But he would have more to cheer about later in the day.