Alam Zeb Khan
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s flamboyant opener batter Fakhar Zaman and consistent performer Muhammad Rizwan guided Pakistan to a sold total of 280 in the final ODI against New Zealand in Karachi on Friday. Fakhar Zaman scored his 8th hundred in his one-day carrier while Rizwan added a quick 77 runs off 74 balls in the decider.
Earlier winning the toss, Pakistan decided to bat first, where the host team lost an early wicket of Shan Masood without scoring. Shan was replaced by the skipper Babar Azam who also returned to the pavilion quickly for just 4 runs.
After Babar Azam’s dismissal, Muhammad Rizwan came on the crease and took the scoreboard ahead with Fakhar Zaman.
Rizwan Half Century Against Kiwis
Both batters played cautiously and produced some good strokes on all sides of the wicket.
Both also reached their half-centuries in style. Both were building the innings further when Muhammad Rizwan misjudged a straight delivery of Sodhi and wanted to cut it to the third man. The ball came low and he was bowled out on 77. After completing his century Fakhar Zaman also went during a quick single and was unable to reach the crease while feeling a bit of irritation in his thigh.
After the dismissal of Fakhar Zaman and Rizwan, the Kiwis’ bowlers showed a bit of dominance and restricted the pace of Pakistani batters’ run scoring and were able to dismiss Haris Suhail (run out) and Muhammad Nawaz (clean bowled) on 22 and 8 runs respectively.
The dismissal of Muhammad Nawaz was followed by Usama Mir, who also added just 6 runs to the total. In this tidy situation, middle-order batsman Salam Agha continued putting pressure on Kiwi pacers.
He played some super strokes and scored fine 45 runs on 43 delivery taking Pakistan to a bit decent total. When he was dismissed, Pakistan were 270 for 8 in 48.4 overs. The tailenders Muhammad Waseem added 7 runs to the total while Haris Rauf and Muhammad Hasnain scored 1 and 4 runs respectively.
From the New Zealand side, Tim Southee was the leading wicket-taker with 3 for 55 in his 10-over spell. Ferguson took two while Bracewell and Ish Sodhi took one wicket each.
