Pakistan's leading spinner Yasir Shah demolished New Zealand on Day three of the ongoing second Test as he registered 8 for 41, Pakistan's third-best bowling figures. The Kiwis were bowled out for a mere 90 runs in 35.3 overs, their lowest in the UAE.
While their skipper Kane Williamson remained not out on 28, the other wickets fell like nine pins on the other end.
New Zealand openers gave their side a decent start as they lost their first wicket only at 50 for 1. However, the carnage began soon after that as the visitors ended up losing their next nine wickets for just 40 runs.
Only twice in Test history, a team has lost 10 wickets for 40 runs or less after a 50 runs opening stand. Both times it was Pakistan's bowling and both times it was NZ's batting.
Only the top three batsmen entered doubles figures - Jeet Raval (31), Tom Latham (22) and Williamson (28). Two players had scored in single digit and the team's scorecard had six players who were dismissed for a duck.
New Zealand now is the team with the joint-most number of ducks in an innings along with Pakistan (vs West Indies, 1980), South Africa (vs India, 1996), Bangladesh (vs West Indies, 2002) and India (vs England, 2014).
Meanwhile, Yasir recorded his career-best figures of 8 for 41 and by doing so, he crossed the 100-mark in the number of wickets in the UAE. While Yasir has 104 wickets in the UAE in 16 Tests, the next best in that part of the world is Pakistan's spinner Saeed Ajmal with 67 wickets in 12 Tests.
Whereas batting is concerned, Pakistan's Babar Azam currently is ahead of in-form Indian Captain Virat Kohli in terms of batting average in 2018. Among the players who have batted in the minimum of 10 innings, Azam tops the batting average charts with 67.71 ahead of Kohli's 59.05.
