
Black Caps on top at Wellington
Captain Daniel Vettori and the returning Daryl Tuffey did the damage for New Zealand as they took the honours on a shortened opening day of the second Test against Pakistan.
Tuffey, replacing the injured Shane Bond in the Black Caps line-up and celebrated his comeback after a five-year hiatus with two wickets for 32 runs.
Vettori chipped in with three for 42 as Pakistan slumped to 161 for six when bad light ended play early at the Basin Reserve.
Kamran Akmal will resume day two in Wellington on 21 and Mohammad Aamer on two.
Pakistan had made steady if slow progress once play got under way two hours 10 minutes late with openers Imran Farhat and Salman Butt putting on 60 runs in 32.2 overs for the first wicket as New Zealand's bowlers got little assistance from the pitch.
But the Black Caps made the breakthrough in the half-hour before tea when Butt, Farhat and Pakistan captain Mohammad Yousuf fell in quick succession.
Iain O'Brien, who had changed ends after bowling into the wind, broke the opening stand of 60 when Butt top-edged a rising delivery to Tuffey at mid-on.
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It had taken the opener, who replaced Khurram Manzoor at the top of the order, 103 balls to reach 29 which included four boundaries.
Then Vettori grabbed two wickets in three balls when Farhat edged a delivery to Ross Taylor in the slips and Yousuf was trapped leg before wicket two balls later without scoring.
Farhat was marginally quicker in reaching his 32 in 98 balls.
Teenager Umar Akmal, the Pakistan hero of the first Test, and the recalled Misbah-ul-Haq then guided Intikhab Alam's side to 90 for three at tea.
After a shaky start Umar, promoted to three after his century and half-century on debut in the series opener, threw caution to the wind.
He slog-swept Vettori for six as he took nine runs off the left-arm spinner's last over before the interval to be on 20 at the break.
Two overs earlier the New Zealand skipper had seen Misbah, who reached tea unbeaten on eight, launch him for six into the stands over long-on shortly after coming to the crease.
The pair put on 53 runs before Umar became the first of Tuffey's two scalps when he edged a delivery onto his stumps, just four runs shy of a second successive half-century.
His entertaining knock of 46 took only 48 balls and included six boundaries and a six.
It was Tuffey's first Test wicket since the match against England in June 2004 and he did not take long to claim a second when Shoaib Malik drove straight to Vettori at mid-off to leave Pakistan struggling on 131 for five.
Misbah and Kamran Akmal added only a further 25 runs to the total when Vettori struck for a third time, trapping Misbah lbw as he attempted a slog sweep.
The 35-year-old asked for Simon Taufel's decision to be reviewed and it was upheld, bringing an end to his 51-ball innings of 21.
Just two more overs were completed before bad light forced the teams from the field.
Earlier the 50th Test at the Basin Reserve got off to an inauspicious start with play delayed until after an early lunch because of soggy ground conditions, concerns about the players' run-ups on the sodden turf and issues with the pitch logos following days of wet weather.
Umpires Taufel and Rudi Koertzen had been satisfied enough with the conditions underfoot to call for the toss at 12.15pm (local time) and play to begin at 12.45pm but they were forced into a rethink by the captains, who felt the run-ups were still too dangerous, prompting a delay until 2.10pm.
When the toss was made Vettori was successful, choosing to bowl first. But they got little help from the pitch as Pakistan made a slow but steady start until O'Brien's breakthrough.
Pakistan made three changes to the team which lost in Dunedin. As well as bringing in Butt for Manzoor, Fawad Alam was axed for Misbah and leg-spinner Danish Kaneria replaced off-spinner Saeed Ajmal.
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