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Pakistan stamped their allround superiority over New Zealand when they won by an innings and 324 runs in the first cricket Test with two days to spare at the Gaddafi Stadium Friday.

Paceman Shoaib Akhtar struck terror in the first innings when he finished with career-best figures of six for 11.

In the second innings, Danish Kaneria grabbed his fourth five-wicket haul in eighth Test on way to capturing five for 110 to help Pakistan record their biggest victory. Their previous was by an innings and 264 runs over Bangladesh at Multan last year.

While it was the fifth biggest margin of victory in the history of Test cricket, it was New Zealand's heaviest defeat. They had lost by an innings and 322 runs against the West Indies at Wellington in 1993-94.

Interestingly, it was also Pakistan's first victory at the cricket headquarters in Lahore for 12 years. Their previous win was also against New Zealand in 1990-91.

New Zealand had resumed on the third day at 58 for six in reply to Pakistan's 643. Their first innings lasted less than an hour when they were shot out for 73, their second lowest score against Pakistan since they scored 70 in 1955-56 at Dhaka.

Forced to follow on and trailing Pakistan by 570 runs, New Zealand were sent packing in the final over of the day's play for 246. The visitors lost their last seven wickets for 60 runs.

Pakistan were simply outstanding in this Test. Their performance showed that the team was now playing and settling down as a winning unit.

If it was Man-of-the-Match Inzamam-ul-Haq who carried the innings on his shoulder with a strokeful 329, the bowling honours were shared by pace and spin combination of Shoaib and Kaneira. In fact, when Shoaib went out of commission from New Zealand's second innings with a swollen ankle, Kaneira rose to the occasion in the second innings.

Pakistan's fielding, however, remained unimpressive and unexpectedly it was Rashid Latif who missed three chances. But when Waqar Younis left the field and captaincy came to Rashid, he marshalled his troops for a brief period and was instrumental in triggering the middle-order collapse.

When Rashid took over thehelm of affairs, New Zealand were cruising along at 180 for three and were in with a chance to take the match into the fourth day. But Rashid made changes in the field and made Danish and Abdul Razzaq bowl according to his requirements.

The results were immediate when Chris Harris' 104-minute defiance ended as Razzaq pinned him in front of the wickets. Harris was earlier dropped twice by Rashid in a space of three runs and the unluckly bowler on both the occasions was Danish.

Nevertheless, Harris's departure opened all floodgates as Danish turned almost unplayable. After the dropped catches, Danish lifted himself and showed his magic by baffling Craig McMillan with a googly that left the batsman stranded in front of the wickets.

Danish was on a hat trick when he disturbed the symmetry of Robbie Hart's stumps with another googly that went through the bat and pad of the New Zealand wicketkeeper. Daniel Vettori denied Danish the feat before falling to Razzaq who finished with two for 47.

The leg spinner was in action again when he picked the prized scalp of Stephen Fleming who fought a lone battle while scoring a sedate 66. Fleming mistimed a pull and was held by substitute Mohammad Sami.

Fleming held the fort for 19 minutes over three hours during which he received 124 balls. His innings included nine exquisitely timed boundaries.

When Fleming reached 24, he became New Zealand's third batsman to complete 4,000 runs. The list is headed by Martin Crowe, who scored 5,444 runs from 77 Tests, and John Wright who took 82 Tests to score 5,334 runs. It was Fleming's 33rd half century in 69th Test.

With the dismissal of Fleming, it was just a matter of when the innings would close. Kaneira completed his five-wicket haul when he foxed Daryl Tuffey in the air who edged it to Shoaib Malik who held two catches as Shoaib Akhtar's substitute.

Besides Fleming, Lou Vincent also showed some resilience and played cracking shots before becoming Kaneira's first victim. He edged it to Rashid who ended up with three catches. Vincent scored 57, his third half century in seven Tests. He batted for 111 minutes and punched seven boundaries.

Together with opener Mark Richardson (32), Vincent added 66 runs while Fleming and Harris put on 85 runs from 159 balls.

Earlier, Shoaib Akhtar continued from where he had left on Thursday when he fired in sizzling yorkers to account for Brooke Walker and Chris Martin. Brooke was adjudged leg before while Martin's middle stump was uprooted.

Both the teams now travel to Karachi Monday where the second and last Test begins May 8.

© Dawn