Cricket: The three batsmen who put steel into NZ's campaign

Brendon McCullum, Daniel Vettori and Tim McIntosh show their style during the third test at McLean Park. Photos / Getty Images

Click here for LIVE SCORES

Three innings of contrasting style and pace did the job for New Zealand in their first innings against Pakistan at McLean Park over the weekend.

They shouldn't disguise the spotty return from the specialists in the innings, but still 400-plus after three successive average displays at Dunedin and Wellington was a substantial improvement.

Start at the top with Tim McIntosh. The Auckland lefthander had been in a drought over the first two tests, with just 37 runs in four innings.

Pressure is one of sport's most grossly over-used words but it's fair to say the man who turned 30 a few days ago might have been feeling the squeeze.

He responded in strong-minded fashion, grafting a valuable 74, batting four and a half hours for the two causes - team and personal.

McIntosh played it smart, concentrated hard and left as much alone as he could outside his offstump. He drove impressively when the opportunity arose.

He had scored a century against the tourists in their three-day lead-up game against New Zealand A at Queenstown, so he had something to fall back on.

The peach of a batting pitch probably helped too, plus the memory of his only test hundred, on the same ground against the West Indies a year ago.

The main point was that McIntosh had won the battle with the bowlers for the first time in the series. Indeed he reckoned he should have gone on to a century and, having dug himself in, he's right.

"There were a few extra nerves battling for my place so it's particularly pleasing," McIntosh said.

"It's disappointing not to get a hundred, though, because I don't think I played and missed at one ball."

No one could gripe at the dawdling scoring rate. Time was when most openers set their stall out in a certain way, and it wasn't flaying the new ball Virendar Sehwag-style, so more power to McIntosh's sturdy qualities.

When captain Dan Vettori and Brendon McCullum came together, New Zealand were in a curly spot - 149 for five, 74 behind Pakistan's first innings.

The response was emphatic, with a stand of 176, a sixth-wicket New Zealand record against Pakistan, eclipsing John Reid and Richard Hadlee's 145 at Wellington 24 years ago.

McCullum deserved a century, but fell 11 short to a good, lifting delivery which jammed him up. He had survived two umpiring referrals on 6 and 15 - one a desperately tight lbw - but once he got settled, he ran the Pakistan bowlers ragged.

He smeared one ball from Asif over the roof at square leg and once he began his jaunty walkabout tactic as the bowlers approached the delivery stride there seemed no stopping him, until hard-working Umar Gul found a way.

Vettori is now up to five test hundreds. Of the 11 New Zealand players with more, only the former captain John Reid was also a genuine test allrounder. He came in at No 6 and while he professes no long-term desire to stay there, rather argued against himself with his fine 134.

At No 8 he offers a reassuring quality, but he's also a better No 6 than all other contenders, so it's a conundrum for the selectors, one of whom happens to be D.L. Vettori. The balance of the side - four bowlers from No 8 down plus Vettori - might not be ideal. The return of Jesse Ryder for the Bangladesh series early in February will change things.

Daryl Tuffey's lusty hitting en route to 80 not out yesterday, ramming home the advantage against a dispirited Pakistani attack, suggested he could provide some No 8 ballast as well.

Vettori got his runs from 186 balls, in his usual distinctive way, possessing the happy knack of hitting the ball where the fielders aren't.

When he was out yesterday, he had batted a minute less and faced one ball less than McIntosh, but comparisons are pointless because of the different situations in which they batted.

McIntosh had done the groundwork; and when Vettori departed the balance of the test had completely changed from when he had marched out to the middle. A man of considerable cricketing influence, on and off the park? You bet.