Dubai – New Zealand continued to press home efforts for a series-levelling win as they reached tea at 54-1 on the fourth day of the second Test against Pakistan in Dubai on Thursday.
The Black Caps are 64 runs ahead with a session and a day to play to square the three-Test series after gaining a slender ten-run lead by dismissing Pakistan for 393.
New Zealand had made 403 in their first knock.
At the break Brendon McCullun was not out on 41 and Kane Williamson was batting on four.
New Zealand lost opener Tom Latham for nine, caught sweeping off leg-spinner Yasir Shah.
Pakistan owed their fightback to wicket-keeper batsman Sarfraz Ahmed who hit a brilliant 112 for his third hundred Ä all scored this year.
He was the last man out in the second over after lunch by McCullum, hitting 16 boundaries in a 215-minute stay, his innings balancing the match after New Zealand looked set for a big lead.
Sarfraz added a record 81 runs for the unfinished tenth wicket stand with Rahat Ali (16 not out).
Sarfraz hit three boundaries in one Mark Craig over and then two more off leg-spinner Ish Sodhi to come within four runs of his hundred.
He then cut seamer Tim Southee towards deep point for his 15th boundary to complete the three-figure mark off 153 balls, the first Pakistani keeper-batsman to score three hundreds in a year.
He ran a full circle in jubilation, thumped his bat in the air to warm applause from his team-mates in the dressing room.
It was Sarfraz, 28 overnight, who anchored the batting after Pakistan resumed the day on 281-6.
Paceman Tim Southee (3-67) removed Yasir Shah in the third over of the day, caught behind for two and just two runs later Trent Boult (2-69) trapped Ehsan Adil leg-before for nought, leaving Pakistan in danger of conceding a big lead.
But Sarfraz added an invaluable 25 for the ninth wicket with Zulfiqar Babar (five) and then frustrated the Kiwis, bettering the tenth wicket stand record against New Zealand of 65 which Salahuddin Ahmed and Mohammad Farooq set in Rawalpindi in 1965.
Pakistan won the first Test by 248 runs in Abu Dhabi last week. – Sapa-AFP