Must carry lessons forward to next two Tests - Sodhi

After New Zealand lost eight wickets for 81 runs within two sessions on the fourth day in Abu Dhabi to slide towards a massive defeat, New Zealand legspinner Ish Sodhi has said they need to take what they've learnt from this match forward to the two remaining Tests, if they are to make a comeback.

New Zealand have two wickets left, the same number that Pakistan lost before declaring on 175 to set the visitors a gigantic target of 480. In fact, Pakistan have lost only five wickets in the Test for 741 runs, whereas New Zealand's match tally reads 436 for 18 after the fourth day. Sodhi said "foreign conditions" were behind the obvious gulf in the two teams' performances.

"I think obviously completely foreign conditions [made a difference] for us and the Pakistanis played really, really well," Sodhi said. "They didn't lose any wickets to our seam bowlers who are world-class swing bowlers, and they did really well to get through those phases.

"Naturally quite disappointed but I guess there's still a little bit to go in this Test and we can try to make as much of amends as we can. Obviously we can't push forward and be in a position to be able to win this match but we can reflect at the end of the Test match."

Four centuries were scored by Pakistan batsmen in the Test, even though only three of them batted twice. New Zealand have had only one hundred, from Tom Latham, and not a single fifty so far.

"With the bat we didn't play ourselves long enough and that lesson we need to take into the next couple of Tests because this is only one Test match out of three," Sodhi said. "So I think we've got a lot of learning to take from this Test to the next two.

"They bowled really, really well and it was a different sort of intimidation. It was pretty tough out there but again, still a way to go in the Test match."

New Zealand were given a steady opening stand of 57 in their pursuit of 480, before Latham and Brendon McCullum fell in successive overs to spinners. Sodhi said McCullum's brisk strike rate of nearly 80 was not to blame and he should not have played any differently.

"I think Baz [McCullum] is obviously quite an aggressive player naturally and he played the way that he usually does, and he played really well up until he got one that skidded through and stayed low," Sodhi said. "But I think the message is always the same. You just got to play yourself as long as you can in these conditions and then if you get through the tough phases, then you can decide what you want to do later on in the Test match."

Sodhi was the only wicket-taker for New Zealand on the fourth day with the wickets of Azhar Ali and Younis Khan, trapping them lbw while attempting sweeps - that meant he took three of the five Pakistan wickets that fell in the match.

"I'm just trying to string spells together at the moment and it feels like it's working pretty well," he said. "In the first innings I felt like I could've got another couple of wickets but so be it, it didn't work out that way. It was nice to get a couple today even though obviously we are in a pretty tough position in terms of the Test, but I'm pretty happy with the way it's coming out at the moment and I'm looking to continue on doing that, once this Test is over, in training."