On a Day 5 pitch, a lot can happen. I'll give a general run down of what we can expect.
The pitch has started to deteriorate and after the first few spells of fast-bowling, we will see Santner bowl in the attack to conjure a wicket.
The dead spots and the cracks mean that the pitch has variable bounce, which makes Jamieson and Wagner very difficult to handle.
Trent Boult and Tim Southee will be gone after the opening spell because they don't have the same skillset as Jamieson and Wagner, and Williamson knows that.
As a batting unit, we have Fawad Alam, Azhar Ali, Mohammad Rizwan, Faheem Ashraf and Yasir Shah left who can at least bat.
The game plan should be for Azhar and Fawad to set up a foundation with a big partnership up front. The likes of Yasir Shah should just defend and rotate strike, no need for them to take risks.
Against Santner, we shouldn't have a big problem because he isn't really a threatening bowler, though he has variations which our batsmen will need to be careful of.
One plan I have is to bludgeon Santner out of the attack, hit him hard so that Williamson thinks twice about bringing him back on, because what that causes is for Williamson to bowl Wagner and Jamieson for longer.
Wagner has an injury, and though it is highly commendable that he has bowled so well, he can't bowl too many overs. Jamieson is a tank so he will bowl a lot of overs if needed. That means that Boult or Southee will have to come back, and they aren't as effective with the old ball as compared with the new ball.
We need to negate the swing early on and rotate strike well. No risky singles and doubles, we cannot afford a runout in this situation.
Azhar Ali and Fawad will set a partnership which will allow the likes of Faheem Ashraf to come in and play their natural game.
That's the only way we can win.
If we lose 2 or 3 wickets up front, we need to sit back and defend everything. That's the Plan B, to get something out of a draw. Plan A is to go for the win.
New Zealand should have batted for a bit longer, or scored more runs to make the deficit greater than 400, because we'd be out of the game. They gave us a chance, and 300 looks very difficult, and it will be challenging, but it is doable.
Wishing Pakistan all the best.
- doomed if you do doomed if you don't.
