Pakistanis love to criticize and I am guilty of it too.

Azhar Ali bats too slowly. What is Haris Sohail doing out there? Yasir Shah is not the same bowler any more. Babar Azam is only suitable for white ball cricket. Where did that declaration come from? Why didn't they accelerate before declaring out of the blue? Why did they enforce the follow on? If New Zealand set a target of 120 or so, Pakistan will lose.

This and a whole lot more was said during the second test between Pakistan and New Zealand and none of it mattered at the end as Pakistan raced home to a win by an innings and 16 runs to level the test series and set it up for a decider next week.

Azhar Ali, who bats way too slowly, scored 81.

Haris Sohail, who seemed all at sea out there, top scored in the match with 147.

Yasir Shah, who is not the same bowler any more, returned career best match figures of 14-184.

Babar Azam, who is only suitable for limited overs cricket, scored his maiden test century - an unbeaten 127.

And the declaration, which seemed unplanned and out of the blue, was perfectly timed. Mickey Arthur and Sarfraz felt that 418 was more than enough on that pitch to bowl New Zealand out twice, and they were spot on!

Yasir Shah, who was overshadowed in the test series against Australia by Bilal Asif, Mohammad Abbas, and even the touring spinner Nathan Lyon, showed the world why he is the best leg spinner in the game currently.

His 14-184 are the second best bowling figures in a test match by a Pakistani, after Imran Khan's 14-116.


His 8-41 in the first innings, which included a triple wicket maiden over, are the third best bowling figures in an innings by a Pakistan, after Abdul Qadir's 9-56 and Sarfraz Nawaz's 9-86.


Yasir's 14 wickets in the match took his test wickets tally to 195 in only 32 test matches. He is well on his way to break the record of being the quickest in the world to reach 200 test wickets.


Yasir's innings haul of 8-41 and match hail of 14-184 are both the best figures in an innings and in a match in all tests played in the UAE.

No bowler had taken more than 11 wickets in a test in the UAE before Yasir's heroics, and he is only the second bowler to take an 8 wicket haul in an innings in the UAE.


Yasir's innings and match hauls are also the best figures by any bowler in the history of test cricket against New Zealand!

He is the 5th bowler to take 8 wickets in an innings and the first ever to take 14 wickets in a match against New Zealand.


Yasir's match haul is third best ever for a leg spinner in the history of test cricket, behind Narendra Hirwani's 16-136 and Anil Kumble's 14-149.


Yasir Shah now has 195 wickets in just 32 tests at an average of 28.2 and a phenomenal strike rate of 54.4, which is the third best strike rate among all spinners, and second best among leg spinners in tests (those who have bowled in at least 50 innings).


It won't be long before Yasir reaches 200 test wickets and creates a new record of reaching the mark in quickest time. With the way he is bowling right now (22 wickets in 2 tests vs New Zealand), I reckon he will achieve this feat in the next test against New Zealand, which starts next week on Monday in Abu Dhabi.