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The picturesque McLean Park at Napier is all set to host what promises to be an exciting and enthralling game of cricket when the third and final deciding test match takes centre stage here on the 11th of December. The cricketing world has seen a lot of test match cricket in the last couple of weeks and it is safe to say that this series has easily been the least followed one. Yet, Pakistan and New Zealand have proven to be great entertainers over the years, drawing just two tests over the last two decades. This series has proved to be no different with a result apiece, and the third match promising to give the series one clear winner.

Napier is best known in cricketing folklore as the venue where the legendary Sachin Tendulkar missed out on becoming the youngest centurion in the history of the game when he was caught by his future coach John Wright on 88. In spite of being a comfortable wicket to bat on first up, the New Zealanders have failed to win even a single test match here, drawing 6 and losing 2. In their last match here, Jesse Ryder had scored a magnificent free-stroking double hundred and he is already being sorely missed in this series. Ross Taylor and Brendon McCullum had also notched up tons as New Zealand had imposed the follow-on on the Indians and they were only denied victory because of an excruciatingly slow and patient hundred from Gautam Gambhir. Unlike some other pitches in Kiwi country, Napier does turn after a couple of days play and Messrs. Vettori and Kaneria would be itching to bowl on the final day.

Both team's think-tanks have had massive headaches concerning the opening slot in their respective batting orders. Openers on both sides have failed miserably in both the matches so far. The New Zealand openers have given their team pathetic starts of 0,0,1,4 in the four innings of the series, and their Pakistani counterparts have fared only marginally better. Pakistan, though, promptly changed their opening duo after the failure in the first game, bringing Salman Butt in for Khurram Manzoor while retaining Imran Farhat, to relatively decent success. New Zealand need a serious rethink in this department as Martin Guptill and Tim McIntosh average just 18 in their 10 attempts at establishing a stable and reliable opening partnership.

Bradley-John Watling, a South African-born opening batsman currently in good form has been drafted into the side for the third test in place of Peter Fulton who did not fare much better than the openers with 42 runs in four innings. He looks set to make a test match debut but it remains to be seen if the Kiwis are willing to let him play at the top of the innings or whether he will simply bat at Fulton's position in the middle-order.

With a brace of nineties to his name, Ross Taylor has been the only batsman to show some semblance of form, apart from the one-man army ‘Superman' Dan Vettori. The middle-order, particularly Daniel Flynn, Grant Elliot and ‘Big Mac' McCullum, have not delivered even a single half-century as yet and are still a cause for grave concern. Since the form of their bowlers has looked good, the bowling line-up is likely to remain unchanged. With Darryl Tuffey making a successful return to international duty with 4/64 in the 1st innings in Wellington, it is highly unlikely that the young and exciting Tim Southee will get a game in this series. Iain O'Brien playing the last test match of his career after announcing his retirement recently would want to make it a memorable one.

Apart from the opening combination, the Pakistani batting now wears a fairly settled look. The Akmal brothers, Kamran and Umar, have been in fine form and are easily the most naturally talented strokemakers in the side. Umar Akmal has, in fact, been nothing short of a revelation. It is incredible how many prodigiously talented youngsters Pakistan seems to churn out on a regular basis and yet manages to be in crisis situations. Apart from being aggressive and flamboyant in his strokeplay, Umar even shouldered great responsibility with success when thrust into the pivotal No.3 slot by his captain. He has scored the lone century of the series in the form of that electric 129 that he made on debut at Dunedin and is the series' leading run scorer with 302 runs to his name at 75.5 runs per dismissal. Elder brother Kamran comes next for Pakistan with 179 runs and skipper Mohammad Yousuf third with 141.

In the bowling department, the return of Mohammad Asif has been spectacular. He was accurate, incisive and managed to swing the ball prodigiously. He gave a crackling start to the series when he bowled McIntosh with the fast bowler's dream delivery, the inswinging yorker on leg-stump. Four innings and four champion performances later, he stands head and shoulders above all the other bowlers with 17 wickets to his name, almost twice that of the next man on the list (Chris Martin with 9). He is the strongest contender for the Man-of-the-Series award, unless a New Zealander absolutely blows away the competition at Napier. He has had great support from the other end as well, with Umar Gul, young Mohammad Aamer and Danish Kaneria all being amongst the wickets. The bowling has always been the strength for Pakistan and this series has proved to be no exception.

Both test matches thus far have proved to be very exciting, with many turning points and last day cliffhangers. Both sides have played an exciting brand of cricket, and while patchy in one department, they have more than made up by excelling in some other. More importantly, with questions being raised ever so often these days on the sustainability of the longest format of the game, this series has been a breath of fresh air and will go a long way in bolstering the flagging popularity of tests.

As far as the pitch is concerned, the last match here saw massive scores and so we could expect the captain who wins the toss to bat first and spin the opposition into submission on day five. The weather forecast says it'll be quite cloudy on all days and scattered showers may be expected on the final day.

The series has been fabulous so far and we can expect something similar as both side go for broke come Friday.

Likely teams:

New Zealand: Tim McIntosh, Martin Guptill, Daniel Flynn, Ross Taylor, Bradley-John Watling, Grant Elliot, Brendon McCullum, Daniel Vettori, Darryl Tuffey, Chris Martin, Iain O'Brien.

Pakistan: Imran Farhat, Salman Butt, Mohammad Yousuf, Misbah-ul-Haq, Umar Akmal, Shoaib Malik, Kamran Akmal, Mohammad Aamer, Umar Gul, Danish Kaneria, Mohammad Asif.

File Photograph Copyright: John Fulton