Pakistan overcame New Zealand in the third and final match of the series on Wednesday in Karachi by a narrow margin of 26 runs. This victory allowed Pakistan to win the series against New Zealand for the first time in 12 years.
Imam-ul-Haq scored 90 runs off 107 balls to help Pakistan reach 287-6 in their allotted 50 overs, and Babar Azam reached his 26th one-day international half-century by scoring 54 runs off 62 balls.
New Zealand’s opener Tom Blundell scored 65 runs, while rookie Cole McConchie scored 64 runs without losing a wicket, but the visitors were bowled out for 261 runs in 49.1 overs.
After taking the first two games of the series at Rawalpindi, which were decided by scores of five and seven wickets, respectively, Pakistan jumped out to a commanding 3-0 lead in the five-match series.
“It’s always a relief when you win a series, and it was a good team effort,” said Azam. “It was a good series for us.” We were able to put together a solid score, and all of the bowlers did a fantastic job.”
The most important thing for us to do right now is to keep our heads down and play as aggressively as we can in the next two matches, with the expectation that we will be able to keep giving it our all. Karachi will play host to the final two matches, which will take place on Friday and Sunday respectively.
The last time Pakistan won a One-Day International (ODI) series against New Zealand was in 2011, and since then, they have dropped six of seven series while drawing one. As Blundell and Will Young (33 off 41 balls) gave New Zealand a confident opening stand of 83 runs in 15.3 overs, they came dangerously close to running away with the victory.
Young was dismissed by a direct throw from short third man for Pakistan’s first breakthrough, and Daryl Mitchell, who had scored hundreds in the two games prior to this one, was bowled out by Mohammad Wasim for 21 runs.
After fifteen runs had been scored, Blundell tried to finish a second run but was also run out because he was unable to reach his crease in time. During his turn at bat, he hit seven balls outside the infield.
Tom Latham, who scored 45 runs, and Mark Chapman, who scored 13 runs, combined 40 runs for the fourth wicket, but bowler Naseem Shah dismissed Chapman for just 13 runs before Wasim finished off Latham. Latham had scored 45 runs when he was out.
McConchie put up a valiant effort to win the match for New Zealand, hitting two sixes and six fours, but he was simply outclassed by his opponent. The Pakistani team was led by Naseem, who took two wickets, followed by Wasim and Shaheen Shah Afridi.
“The pitch probably slowed up a little bit,” said Latham, the captain of New Zealand’s cricket team. Even while we weren’t exactly performing at our peak, perhaps things might have turned out differently if we had formed a few strategic alliances here and there.
Earlier on, the in-form opener Fakhar Zaman was caught by Matt Henry for 19, which gave New Zealand a good start to their innings.
Before he was dismissed, Zaman was in fine form; he had scored three hundreds in his previous three one-day international innings. The batting was brought under control by Haq and Azam’s combination, which scored 108 runs from the second wicket.
Azam had smashed one six, three fours, and a four before Henry got him with a ball that hit his stumps. The wicket was taken by the pacer Adam Milne in the 38th over.
In spite of his continued difficulties, Abdullah Shafique was only able to score 19, but Agha Salman (31) and Mohammad Rizwan (32) scored 54 runs for the fifth wicket to bring the total up to a higher number.
Both Mohammad Nawaz and Shadab Khan made contributions in the final overs, with Mohammad Nawaz scoring 11 runs and Shadab Khan scoring 21 runs. Henry was New Zealand’s most effective bowler, finishing with a 3-54 batting line.