Chris Martin is looking to take part in his first New Zealand Test victory in Hamilton.

It's been a tough road for him since he was plucked from Canterbury to fly to South Africa to bolster the injury-blitzed New Zealand team in November.

He's had to make the adjustment from provincial player to international cricketer, but in seven Tests he has come through and at the moment has 26 Test wickets at an average of 28.42.

But when he bowled his first few overs today he wondered whether, in his own words, his captain wanted to castrate him because of the way he was bowling.

With Pakistan bats flailing at everything, sometimes missing but more often connecting with the ball flying in all directions, it was hard to draw a line on just how poorly Martin was bowling.

However, 17 runs from two overs did not make for impressive reading.

Then once he picked up Ijaz Ahmed driving in grandiose fashion only to give wicket-keeper Adam Parore the first of four catches, he had an amazing sequence of taking four wickets in 12 balls for no cost.

No sooner had he done that than he slipped back into the loose lines of earlier and had 29 runs hit from three overs, mainly straight back down the wicket by the impressive Younis Khan.

"We bowled probably as loosely as they batted," he said.

Then when he struck his purple patch it was like operating on remote.

"I wasn't thinking a lot, it was just happening for me," he said.

Bowling to the Pakistanis he never knew quite what to expect other than the unexpected.

The South Africans he bowled to were much more orthodox.

He admitted that the rigours of the season have taken their toll and that he had dropped down a couple of pegs in relation to the speed he was bowling.

But he intends to lift the intensity in the second innings as he chases that so far elusive first Test win.

© CricInfo