Alam Zeb Khan
ISLAMABAD: New Zealand outclassed Pakistan while winning the 3rd ODI against the host side by 2 wickets here on Friday in Karachi and winning the series with a 2 to 1 margin. Convey, Williamson and Philips played superbly with half-centuries and snatched the game from the host side making Fakhar Zaman century in vain.
Chasing 281 to win, Kiwis batters took a solid start and both the openers managed to stay on the crease in the first powerplay, till the opener Finn Allen got run out scoring 25.
However, after replacing Allen the skipper Williamson came to the crease, along with Devon Conway took the Kiwis out of the crisis and moved the scoreboard to a steady level. Both played superbly and completed their half-centuries.
Convey was dismissed by Agha Salman on 52 to create some hope. However, the next batter Daryl Mitchel also played well and added 31 precious runs on the scoreboard.
He was also dismissed by Agha Salman followed by Kim Williamson run out on 53. Later Latham and Bracewell were also dismissed quickly scoring 16 and 7 respectively. And when New Zealand was 205 for 6, it seems Pakistan was dominating the game.
However, Glen Philip and Santner took the game away from Pakistan, where Philip scored a crucial half-century. Santner scored 15 and was dismissed by Muhammad Nawaz but that was too late.
From Pakistan’s side Agha Salman and Muhammad Waseem two wickets each while Muhammad Nawaz and Usama Mir grabbed one wicket each.
Pak batting against Kiwis
Batting before Pakistan’s opener batter Fakhar Zaman and Muhammad Rizwan guided Pakistan to a 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 to 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. 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, Kiwis’ bowlers showed a bit of dominance and restricted the pace of Pakistan’s batters 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 Kiwis’ 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 was 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 New Zealand side, Tim Southee was the leading wicket-takers with 3 for 55 in his 10-over spell. Ferguson took two while Bracewell and Ish Sodhi took one wicket each.
