McMillan all praise for 'exciting' Latham

Not only did Tom Latham's second century in consecutive Tests allow New Zealand to capitalise on the advantage of winning the toss in Dubai, his good form has solidified one of the team's troublesome opening spots.

Over the last five years, only one other New Zealand opener has managed to score two Test centuries - and Peter Fulton's average remained in the mid-20s despite a hundred in each innings against England at Auckland in 2013. Latham's opening stand of 77 with Brendon McCullum was also New Zealand's best this year and batting coach Craig McMillan was understandably pleased with the 22-year-old's effort.

"It's obviously exciting when you've got a young player like that batting at the top of the order, which it's fair to say has been a problem for New Zealand for a number of years," McMillan said. "As a batsman, once you score that first Test hundred, you almost feel like you belong. He played really well in the West Indies, had a couple of fifties, hadn't quite got that hundred. So that was a real key for him.

"It was a terrific knock, backing up that effort in the first Test. He is a very talented young player, who is disciplined in his game plan and his approach, he knows his key areas where he can hit the ball, knows when he has to defend... And his concentration throughout the day, at times it got pretty hot out there, it was an excellent all-round performance and one that we needed at the top of the order.

"He's shown the ability to bat long periods of time and if you're going to score runs in these conditions against this opposition, you have to be able to occupy the crease and he did that brilliantly today."

Latham finished the day unbeaten on 137 and, having said before the Test that New Zealand needed to put Pakistan under pressure with a big first-innings score, played a leading role in their response to falling behind in the three-match series.

"It was an excellent day," McMillan said. "To get to the end and only be three down and to have one of your opening batsman still there on 130-odd was terrific. We had partnerships all the way through, we would have liked a couple of bigger partnerships but, there were a few things that we got wrong in the first Test that we've talked about, in terms of losing wickets in clumps, nullifying reverse swing and a few other things, and I think we did that by and large. So a lot of positives from the day."

In Pakistan's last three Tests, they have batted first and then ground out the opposition - Australia twice and New Zealand - through attritional fast bowling and a varied spin attack. New Zealand have "laid a platform" to do the same themselves, McMillan said, with a score of 450 or more, which would mean Pakistan spending the best part of two days in the field before coming out to bat. If Latham continues at the crease, that outcome will be all the more likely.

"Fair to say there's a few smiles on the faces, probably more so the bowlers than the batsmen to be fair," McMillan said. "I think the one given over here, even though you win the toss, that doesn't guarantee you anything. If you have a good day and you play well, then it can put you ahead in the game. I think today we've laid a platform but there's still a lot of hard work to do and Pakistan will come back hard tomorrow morning."