Twitter goes ballistic as Yasir Shah runs through New Zealand with an eight-wicket haul

Pakistan were criticized for not forcing the play while batting first despite being 0-1 down in the series. After batting for 167 overs, they only mustered 418 runs for the loss of five wickets and to everyone’s surprise, declared which at one stage looked like a below-par total. But a certain Yasir Shah, after a spell of rain on the third day, came into the attack and just ran through New Zealand‘s batting line-up to dismantle them for just 90 runs in the first innings.

After seeing through the tricky period on the second evening, Jeet Raval and Tom Latham put on a 50-run stand batting for close to 22 overs. The former went to play an extravagant stroke and in the process, was castled by the leggie Yasir. However, little did Raval knew about the procession that was about to follow after his wicket. Kane Williamson, the calm personality, entered the scene only to watch his troops follow one after the other from the other end.

After Raval, it was Latham who was sent back by Yasir and in the same over, he went on to castle Ross Taylor and Henry Nicholls to leave the Kiwis shocked. The delivery bowled to Taylor was absolute magic. The accurate leg-break pitched on middle stump as the batsman tried to defend all around the ball. Meanwhile, the red cherry just turned enough to uproot the off-stump.

Procession continues

Yasir Shah was doing his usual stuff though. He normally struggles to scalp his first wicket and then rides on the confidence to pick a few more in quick succession. After sending back the top-order, Yasir proved to be too good for the tail-enders. He was just toying with them with every delivery and snaffled them with his variations. With 0/22, the Pakistan leg-spinner ended up with the magical figures of 8/41.

New Zealand were bundled out effectively for 40 runs as they were 50/0 in the 22nd over. The innings lasted for only 35.3 overs with Yasir Shah bowling almost 13 overs. At the moment, Pakistan have enforced a follow-on on the Kiwis and the 32-year-old will once again look to wreck havoc in the opposition camp.

Here’s how Twitter reacted to a mind-boggling spell:

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