New Zealand A continued the Pakistan team's tour of misery through New Zealand yesterday when finishing the second day of their three-day game by pinning the visitors on the ropes.

Pakistan, 178 runs behind NZ A on the first innings were 108/4 at stumps with a cloud over opening batsman Saeed Anwar who has a groin injury and who has yet to bat.

NZ A's effort in scoring 278 was the most significant feature of the match so far and could yet be the decisive innings against a team which looked to be struggling for concentration and application.

The home team struck a decisive blow in their victory bid when the best Pakistan batsman in the match, Imran Farhat, was out for 51 just before stumps, when attempting to hit leg spinner Brooke Walker out of the ground. He was well held by Kyle Mills at mid on and the home team were in a good position to emulate the feat of the 1997/98 England team.

New Zealand A's innings was dominated by CLEAR Black Cap team-mates Jacob Oram and Lou Vincent. Vincent was unlucky to be given out caught behind when on 57. He appeared upset at the decision, a situation which set in train the loss of three wickets for three.

Vincent batted with assurance in getting to his 50 off 95 balls and hit seven fours while the 100 partnership with Oram came up in 98 minutes off 135 balls, a good rate against a still respectable Pakistan attack.

Oram carried on and once finding an ally in Brooke Walker, set about his own form of attack, bringing up his own 50 with a lovely square cut and then launching into a full scale assault which was particularly severe on off spinner Arshad Khan.

One six travelled nearly 100 metres and landed well outside the boundary of what is regarded as the ground with the biggest boundaries in the country.

However, the assault brought his own downfall as he got into two minds when going down the pitch to Arshad. Instead of carrying through with a big hit, he attempted to dab the ball past the slip area. But he wasn't quite precise enough and found substitute fieldsman Moin Khan in the slips.

Oram was delighted with his side's position in the match.

"If you had said to us beforehand that we would get 280 and Pakistan would be out for 100 we would have taken that.

"You have got to be happy with that," he said.

Oram was disappointed to get out for 88 and said he should have got 100 and plenty.

"I've had two 90s and a couple of 80s and I got a bit silly," he said of his dismissal.

"I went down the wicket to it and it was a bit shorter than I thought. I went to defend it and was caught in two minds," he said.

The game was only his seventh first-class innings this summer, and his first since the start of January.

"I just wanted to get back in the groove of building an innings," he said.

"It is a great facility here and I just wanted to make the most of it."

Having played with the national team during the one-day series had helped his approach in this game. And he found himself reflecting that side's approach by wanting to be positively aggressive.

"People say that this is just a tour game but we were still facing their bowlers and someone like Waqar with 300 Test wickets requires you to be wary of him.

"Gary Stead said to me that Mohammad Sami was quicker than anyone else around the country this summer. They were still putting a lot of effort in," he said.

Oram was also pleased with the bowling performance of Chris Drum in both innings, and Kyle Mills for his seven overs into the wind today which succeeded in slowing down Imran Farhat and contributing to his ultimate demise. He should have had him out on 33 but Andrew Penn dropped a high chance at mid on.

Play starts at 10.30am tomorrow and the first session will be vital for the NZ A bowlers as they attempt to break through and have to score as few runs as possible to claim the win.

© CricInfo