After fighting hard throughout the first Test, gritting their teeth and staying in the contest to grab a first up win, Aotearoa's Blackcaps did the opposite in the second Test vs Pakistan. 14 wickets from leggy Yasir Shah, along with centuries from Haris Sohail and Babar Azam highlighted Pakistan's domination, which now sets the scene for an enticing third Test.

This was a Test in which we saw the real Pakistan and Pakistan playing how they want to play in United Arab Emirates is an immense challenge to overcome. However, the Blackcaps didn't help matters by going down the same route that Pakistan's batsmen went down in the first Test as too many batsmen assisted the bowlers with weird decisions at the crease. Here we all were, having a chuckle at the efforts of Pakistan's lower order batsmen with the game on the line in the first Test and or whatever reason, the kiwis tried to emulate that.

Pakistan Vs New Zealand | Highlights | 2nd Test Day 3 | 26 November 2018 | PCB Welcome to Pakistan Cricket Board Official Page. Get All The Updates Regarding Pakistan Cricket Here. All the Happening in Pakistan can be caught up here. You can get players interviews, match highlights, Practice Sessions, Press Conference, Celebrations.

Pakistan Vs New Zealand | Highlights | 2nd Test Day 4 | 27 November 2018 | PCB Welcome to Pakistan Cricket Board Official Page. Get All The Updates Regarding Pakistan Cricket Here. All the Happening in Pakistan can be caught up here. You can get players interviews, match highlights, Practice Sessions, Press Conference, Celebrations.

It's the combination of the Blackcaps hurting themselves and a skillful Pakistan team executing at a high level, that culminates in such a heavy loss. Shah averages 28.23 with his leggies in Test cricket for a reason and with 16 5-wicket-hauls in 32 Tests, Shah takes a whole lot of wickets in bunches when he's sizzling. With 5w in each of his last 3inns, Shah has a total of 22 wickets in this series so far and dealing with his leggies is going to be a key focus at training for the Blackcaps.

Shah has double the amount of wickets of the next best bowler from either team, Hasan Ali. The Pakistan seamer took 1w and 3w in this Test, pestering Colin de Grandhomme and most importantly taking the wickets of Tom Latham on 50 and Henry Nicholls on 77 in the second innings. I highlight Ali because his craft with the ball is exactly what I expect from this Pakistan bowling group; he moved the ball into de Grandhomme and then into Nicholls (lefty) to dismiss them.

Having a seamer move the ball both ways and a leggy who has the ball on a string, absorbed the lack of wickets from Mohammad Abbas. Yup, the Blackcaps lost this Test by an innings and the hottest seamer in the world didn't take a wicket.

Then we have the fact that Pakistan batted once and declared on 418/5. De Grandhomme did his new-ball job in dismissing the openers, but then Pakistan hit cruise mode with Azhar Ali hitting 81, Sohail 147 and Azam 127. While Shah took 14w and offie Bilal Asif took 1w, giving Pakistan's spinners 15w, Ajaz Patel and Ish Sodhi accounted for 1w in 61 overs.

Everyone was swift to celebrate Patel's performance in the first Test and legitimately so. This is a clear example though of giving time for the dust to settle as debut performances tend to be impressive given the lack of information opposing teams have on the debutant. A Test later, hours of video footage and Patel now has to bounce back with his own adjustments.

The big positive is Henry Nicholls, who leads Kane Williamson and Ross Taylor as Aotearoa's leading run-scorer in the series. Nicholls, Taylor and Tom Latham hit half-centuries in the second innings, which is slightly annoying as they couldn't kick on and lead the fight back. Nicholls however, is the only kiwi with two 50+ scores and this now gives Nicholls a nice feel to his career having scored runs in Aotearoa, along with runs in series' in South Africa and UAE. Small sample size, but to score runs in such a variety of conditions is a great sign.

Speaking of feelings, I get the feeling that de Grandhomme is at the front of your minds given that he's now got a grand total of 17 runs from 4inns in this Test series and that his 14 in the second innings not only accounted for 14 of those 17 runs, it was his first double-figure score in the UAE. Obviously that ain't good and de Grandhomme currently looks like a bit of a bunny, although I'm not quite all-in on CDG being exposed.

This is a fine line between CDG being exposed and CDG being in a slump. Given that this is de Grandhomme's first series outside of Aotearoa, it's not all that surprising to see de Grandhomme struggle against reverse swing and spin. For someone who has primarily played their longform cricket in Aotearoa, dealing with the threat that Pakistan currently offer - for the first time - is always going to be niggly.

Working in de Grandhomme's favour are a few wickets; only 1w ahead of Neil Wagner and Sodhi, a couple wickets behind Trent Boult and Patel, but de Grandhomme is the only kiwi bowler averaging under 30 in this series. Whether that's enough to keep de Grandhomme in the taem for the third Test remains to be seen, but it would be rough to kick de Grandhomme out for another bowler, when de Grandhomme's been the best Blackcaps bowler.

I'll touch on those selection ideas in the preview for the third Test. For now, we need to take a sip of reality tea and appreciate how awesome Pakistan can be in their conditions. How the Blackcaps respond will offer some low key insight into the strength of the team and how coach Gary Stead influences his group over the next few days.

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Peace and love 27.