Kane Williamson's 238 and Henry Nicholls' 157 deflate Pakistan

It rained works, boundaries, Kane Williamson's class and dropped catches in a leaden Christchurch working day. Everything meant even more agony for Pakistan, as the length between them and New Zealand grew bigger and bigger. At tea on day three, New Zealand had been at an imposing 599 for 6, leading by 302.

Williamson fell for 238, his fourth Check double-century, mins before tea within an extended second program where New Zealand piled on 201 works. Kyle Jamieson, perhaps sent up to push the scoring, possessed a well-place Daryl Mitchell for provider on 69 at the break. New Zealand's simply consideration could possibly be to amount out just how many overs they would like to offer Pakistan in the ultimate session, or if they would like to bat on with two total days staying. Will the temptation of bowling with a major business lead under cloudy skies come to be too hard to resist?

Williamson commenced the session on 177, and really should have been out without increasing his score as he tried to take up his signature dab. Nevertheless, Azhar Ali deposit the opportunity at gully off Shaheen Afridi, after having reprieved the various other centurion, Henry Nicholls, early in the day off Mohammad Abbas. A right hand previously wrapped in tape took a stinging blow as Ali accomplished the dive.

As the conditions got murkier and the bowling defensive, Williamson dominated by working the ball in to the gaps, operating tirelessly between your wickets and then dealing with the short ball, with two guys back, with the draw and the hook.

With tea approaching, Pakistan looked to take off works by having Zafar Gohar bowl his left-arm spin from over the wicket, but Williamson presented the reverse sweep, something Mitchell emulated soon after in mentioning an aggressive second Test half-century. Mitchell was especially severe on anything short, shimmying down the pitch and using his solid forearms to pull in the arc between deep square and deep midwicket. By the time Williamson was out found looking to arch again and ramp, he had added 133 with Mitchell.

For much of your day, though, the Williamson-Nicholls partnership strolled through without having to be challenged. Nicholls, allow off on 3 and 86, feasted on some tired bowling to talk about his seventh Test century. He exchanged the hard scrap, along with some good luck, for a few flamboyance as the program wore on.

Immediately after raising the century, he walked straight down the pitch to heave Mohammad Abbas above midwicket. He seemed to improvise, have the bowling on, and get the scorecard shifting. Not since the hundred was out of the way but because he was fighting a calf stress that didn't allow him to perform too much.

The New Zealand captain continued calmly like he did on Mon, going past Sir Donald Bradman's Test runs tally, mentioning 7000 Test runs in his 144th innings - that's quicker that Brian Lara, Ricky Ponting and AB de Villiers - and got stuck into the bowling.

Pakistan lacked a plan for large parts, but in the first hour, they appeared to have a single: the seamers attacked the stumps, something they didn't do enough on Mon, and once that failed, they tried to create Williamson up for the short-ball strangle down leg. But they couldn't sustain pressure or even produce a flutter of doubt. Having only one slip fielder with regard to it and six men back for much of the session left Williamson without pressure to manage.

Nicholls fell to a good top-edged hook for 157 to get rid of a giant 369-run stand, giving Afridi, who must have had him in early stages the second day, some incentive for tirelessly bounding in. BJ Watling nicked to Haris Sohail at third slip to provide Afridi a second wicket. However, such possibilities were significantly and few. And even when Pakistan took the probabilities, it didn't really total much. The game may have gone away from them.