Mohammad Sami marks his arrival with pacy display

Shoaib Akhtar may be gone and out of the Pakistan Test series against New Zealand but Mohammad Sami has arrived and sent out a warning that there is still fire aplenty among the tourists' attack.

A slightly-built player and shorter in comparison to Shoaib Akhtar, he bowls at a lively pace as New Zealand A's batsmen learnt today at Bert Sutcliffe Oval at Lincoln University.

Still to play Test cricket, today's match was his representative debut for Pakistan.

Not long off the plane from Pakistan, he relished the hard, fast pitch provided for the game, and while prone to the odd foot-faulting no ball, he marked his arrival by claiming the wicket of NZ A opener Richard Jones, bowled for 11.

Then in his second spell, just before stumps, he beat Gary Stead for speed and bowled him for 23.

Stead said Sami was faster than Waqar Younis, and Waqar bowled probably his fastest and most consistent spell of the tour in favourable conditions here.

"He was slippery. He hits the seam and moved it both ways. There wasn't much movement through the air,

"He was quite hard to pick up as he had a fast last stride," he said.

By the end of the day he had two for 21 from his six overs and left no doubt in the minds of the New Zealanders that their Test-playing superiors could yet face quite a handful in the first Test starting in Auckland on Thursday.