On balance New Zealand deserved their reward, if only because they came back so well after Butt and Imran Farhat had made Vettori's decision to bowl first look misguided early. Whether Vettori himself would have expected to end up with three wickets on a pitch offering as much turn as an ice-rink might to an early 90s Anil Kumble is open to question, but the spark for the revival was provided by the pacemen.
Things had looked difficult more than halfway into the afternoon session. First up, everyone seemed to agree that there would be mischief in the air and pitch. There wasn't. Chris Martin and Daryl Tuffey - looking every inch a man returning to Tests after nearly five years - had been tight, nothing more. Nothing moved off the pitch and the bounce was true and good. Not that it made much of a difference to the openers, as roused as two turtles on Valium.
aside from that and the 53-run stand between Umar and Misbah-ul-Haq (21) Pakistan failed to get any other partnerships going as Butt, Farhat and Mohammed Yousuf fell in quick succession.Tuffey then dismissed Shoaib Malik, who played a loose shot, four overs after bowling Umar, who was promoted to number three.
"I think we've seen a few loose shots from them," added Tuffey.
"In the last Test and even today when they were losing wickets they were still playing the odd flamboyant shot outside off stump.
"We saw Misbah get out as well to a big hoick. That's the way they play and if we bowl enough balls in the right area these things will happen and these guys will get out."
Farhat, who was one of three Dan Vettori wickets when he sent one straight to Ross Taylor in the slips on 32, felt Pakistan were still in a reasonable position.
"The score at the moment is not bad if you look at the conditions. If we score another 100 runs it will be good because our bowling side is very good," said opener Farhat.
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