new Zealand capped a hard-fought tour of the UAE with a commanding win
in the final match to take the ODI series against Pakistan 3-2. The
Tests and T20 internationals had been tied 1-1 each. New Zealand had
trailed in both those contests, as they did twice in the one-dayers
before resiliently rebounding with victories.
Kane Williamson led with the bat again, along with Ross Taylor, as New Zealand posted a stiff total on a slow pitch and the fast bowler Matt Henry
blew away the Pakistan top order on his way to a maiden international
five-wicket haul. Pakistan had come within a couple of hits of chasing
down 300 in the fourth ODI but they fell well short of the target of 276
as their poor record in series-deciders over the past decade continued.
Pakistan's top order had failed to fire throughout the series barring
the third match. The trend continued as the express duo of Henry and
Adam Milne troubled the batsmen again. Nasir Jamshed failed to review a
poor leg-before decision fifth ball of the chase. Younis Khan was caught
behind down the leg side trying to work a short ball fine.
Williamson held back his key fast bowlers and introduced himself and
Anton Devcich to share the fifth bowler's quota. Forget putting pressure
on the part-timers, Pakistan managed 1 for 40 from the 11 overs they
bowled. The first boundary of the innings came in the 11th over, and the
second arrived only in the 25th.
After Asad Shafiq went leg-before to Devcich, Shehzad found a stable
partner in Haris Sohail and two forged a steady 69-run partnership.
Shehzad had been reprieved twice, once on 17 when New Zealand did not
review a plumb lbw and then on 43 when the keeper Luke Ronchi dropped
him, Devcich the bowler to suffer both times. Shehzad gradually found
his touch and was timing the ball well as he moved past his fifty, only
to gift his wicket away with 169 needed from 22 overs. Henry returned
and bowled it short. Shehzad mis-hit it straight to midwicket.
Pakistan 250 for 7 (Haris 85*, Afridi 61) beat New Zealand 246 for 7 (Taylor 105*, Irfan 3-57) by three wickets
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
Video report - Pakistan clinch three-wicket win
Half-centuries from Haris Sohail and an unexpectedly restrained Shahid Afridi revived
a floundering chase as Pakistan won a thrilling first ODI by three
wickets. New Zealand, having hauled themselves out of a mire of their
own thanks to a century from Ross Taylor,
were running away with the game at the three-quarter mark, but Haris
and Afridi snatched it away with breathtaking coolness. Haris finished
on an unbeaten 85, to go with 10 tight overs of left-arm spin earlier in
the day.
When Afridi walked in to bat, Pakistan were six down, and needed 123 off
122 balls. The left-handed Haris was batting on 34, and had played a
couple of lovely lofted drives against the spinners in a fighting
innings that seemed destined to go down as a small positive in a big
defeat. That's all it would have been if Afridi had made a typically
harebrained 15 or 20 at the other end.
But Afridi knuckled down, and brought out his first slog only 21 balls
into his innings. By then, he had picked up boundaries with a screaming
drive over extra cover and a crafty dab behind the wicket, but had
otherwise simply knocked the ball around for ones and twos. That first
slog produced a thick edge to the third man boundary. The next slog came
when he was on 30. He swung and missed and the ball was wide of off
stump.
Feeding off a senior partner who was batting like one, Haris grew in
confidence and reached his half-century with a glance off his hips. The
runs kept flowing, and the decades rolled away from the equation. When
Pakistan needed 40 off 30, Haris smacked James Neesham over mid-off.
With 27 required from 19, Afridi launched Kyle Mills over long-on.
Taylor kept New Zealand in the game, running out Afridi with a direct
hit when 13 were still required, but Wahab Riaz kept his cool at No. 8
to see Pakistan home with three balls remaining.
Three consecutive hundreds in ODIs
Quinton de Kock (2013): 135 (v India), 106 (v India), 101 (v India)
AB de Villiers (2010): 114* (v India), 102* (v India), 102 (v West Indies)
Herschelle Gibbs (2002): 116 (v Kenya), 116* (v India), 153 (v Bangladesh)
Saeed Anwar (1993): 107 (v Sri Lanka), 131 (v West Indies), 111 (v Sri Lanka)
Zaheer Abbas (1982-83): 118 (v India), 105 (v India), 113 (v India)
Ross Taylor (2014): 112* (v India), 102 (v India), 105* (v Pakistan)
Pakistan had left out Umar Akmal, and the lack of urgency in their
new-look top six - among whom Younis Khan boasted the highest strike
rate, 75.33 - was shown up as they began their chase of 247. Never the
most confident chasers, Pakistan lacked thrust at the top of the order,
particularly with Sarfraz Ahmed batting at No. 7. The runs came at a
trickle, and scoreboard pressure produced wickets. By the 18th over,
they were 52 for 4.
Misbah-ul-Haq and Haris then added 34 in 48 balls - which was relatively
brisk going, considering the pace of the innings till then - before
Vettori sent back Misbah with a blinding one-handed grab at mid-on.
Sarfraz sparkled with positivity during his brief stint at the crease,
his strokes finding hitherto unexplored parts of the ground and causing
the team management, possibly, to wonder if his inventiveness would have
been better served up the order. When he holed out to long-on in the
31st over, Pakistan were 124 for 5 and it looked like the game was up.
Sent in to bat, New Zealand had been in a similar situation - 111 for 5
in the 29th over - before Taylor rallied the lower-order to steer them
to 246. Taylor last played an ODI back in January against India, but
showed no signs of having been away, extending his form from that series
to complete his third hundred on the bounce in the format.
The single that took Taylor to 100 caused him considerable pain, a
lifter from Riaz in the final over catching him on his right thumb and
going on to strike him on the neck. By then, though, he had ensured -
via lower-order partnerships with Luke Ronchi, Daniel Vettori and Nathan
McCullum - that New Zealand would set Pakistan a challenging target. At
111 for 5 in the 29th over, they had seemed in danger of falling short
of 200.
With Mohammad Hafeez banned from bowling, there was serious doubt over
how Pakistan would fill their fifth-bowler quota. Their five specialist
batsmen apart from Hafeez had taken a combined haul of three ODI
wickets.
It was a hole New Zealand might have looked to target when they were
sent in to bat, but by the time Haris came on to bowl his left-arm spin,
they were in no position to go after him, having lost two wickets to
Mohammad Irfan in their first 11 overs.
Haris almost had Anton Devcich stumped with his second ball, with only a
faint deflection off the pad causing the ball to elude Sarfraz's gloves
behind the wicket. Haris kept finding sharp, if slowish, turn off the
dry Dubai surface, and bowled with enough control to fulfill the fifth
bowler's quota all by himself, and all in one spell, finishing with
figures of 10-0-39-0.
By that time, New Zealand had lost three more wickets, and Taylor was
waging a lone fight. Apart from a couple of thrillingly precise cuts off
Afridi, he was batting in risk-free fashion, knocking the spinners for
singles down the ground and either side of sweeper cover. He needed
help.
He got that from Ronchi and Vettori, with whom he put on 44 and 58 for
the sixth and seventh wickets. Having receded into the background during
his partnership with Ronchi, Taylor's scoring went up a gear during the
last 10 overs. When Umar Gul dug one in short in the 44th over, he
swatted him away over the midwicket boundary. Given width four balls
later, he slapped Gul away through the covers.
The 200 came up in the next over, and Vettori swung Riaz away for fours
off the first two balls of the 46th, before he walked too far across his
stumps to a yorker. With McCullum and Taylor adding a further 33, New
Zealand ended up taking 78 from the last 10 overs. pakistan
Monday's game against New Zealand will be the first ODI Pakistan will
play since their one-run defeat to Australia in Abu Dhabi in October, a
loss that exposed their brittle batting and a sense of uncertainty in
their leadership.
The leadership question was resolved by Misbah-ul-Haq's return to form
in the Tests against Australia and the team's dominant victories. The
question of their batting strength, however, was raised again in the
second T20 against New Zealand, where Pakistan failed to chase down 145
on a slow track in Dubai.
Unlike New Zealand, who have another home series against Sri Lanka, this
five-match ODI series will be the best chance Pakistan have to complete
their team combination jigsaw. Younis Khan was recalled to the ODI side
on the back of a stupendous run of form in the Tests and Pakistan will
need more of that in the series. Their attack has been boosted by the
return of Umar Gul, but with Mohammad Hafeez suspended from bowling and
restricted to playing as a specialist batsman, Pakistan will need to
work out their bowling combination with a focus on spin.
Between Monday's game and the World Cup, New Zealand will play 14 ODIs,
of which nine will be at home. Kane Williamson has already stressed that
his side is keen on gaining experience, especially match awareness in
different situations.
Twice already on the tour, New Zealand have fought from being a game
down to drawing level in the series. Having got accustomed to the
pitches in the UAE, they will be looking at grabbing a lead in the ODI
series, building on the momentum from their T20 win.
Since the ODIs against India in January 2014, New Zealand have played just one series - against South Africa in October. Kane Williamson and Ross Taylor
missed it due to injuries and will aim to get their World Cup
preparations underway in earnest. Both batsmen have already scored
centuries on this tour. Williamson's 192 in the Sharjah Test was pivotal
to the side's series-levelling win while Taylor had scored a vital
hundred in the drawn Dubai Test.
After he was reported for a suspect action, Mohammad Hafeez had
said that he did not rate himself as a bowler and was focused on his
career as an international batsman. His suspension as a bowler, though,
could affect Pakistan's preparations for the World Cup, according to
team manager Moin Khan, and there will be some scrutiny on Hafeez as he
walks out to bat. His recent form has been good with a couple of
hundreds against New Zealand in the Tests.
Team news
Umar Gul took 2 for 24 on his return to international cricket in the second T20 and could play his first ODI since March 2014.
Pakistan (probable) 1 Ahmed Shehzad, 2 Mohammad Hafeez, 3 Sarfraz
Ahmed (wk) , 4 Younis Khan, 5 Misbah-ul-Haq (capt), 6 Umar Akmal, 7
Shahid Afridi, 8 Umar Gul, 9 Wahab Riaz, 10 Zulfiqar Babar, 11 Mohammad
Irfan
Martin Guptill has been ruled out of the match due to a hamstring niggle
which also kept him out of the second T20. New Zealand have not yet
taken a call on Corey Anderson's selection, after the allrounder was
struck on the helmet during the first T20.
New Zealand (probable) 1 Anton Devcich, 2 Kane Williamson (capt),
3 Dean Brownlie, 4 Ross Taylor, 5 Tom Latham, 6 Luke Ronchi (wk), 7
James Neesham, 8 Daniel Vettori, 9 Adam Milne/Nathan McCullum, 10 and 11
Matt Henry/Kyle Mills/Mitchell McClenaghan
Pitch and conditions
The ODI series will start at the venue of the two T20s. The surface for
the second game on Friday was slower but the surface for the ODIs could
end up being more batting-friendly. Dew was not much of an issue during
the second T20.
Stats and trivia
The last time Pakistan suffered five or more successive ODI defeats
was between November 2009 and June 2010, when they lost nine games on
the trot
New Zealand have won 10 out of 32 games they have played in the UAE. All but three of the games were played in Sharjah.
The last ODI between the two sides was played during the 2011 World Cup. Ross Taylor's unbeaten century helped set up a 110-run win for New Zealand in the game in Pallekele
Quotes
"The thinking is that now that we have him here, we give him full confidence, because even as a senior you require backing." Misbah-ul-Haq on how Pakistan will handle Younis Khan, who had lashed out at the selectors after being dropped for the Australia ODIs
"It's not so much an audition, it's very much about workloads as well.
There's so much cricket before the World Cup so we're very conscious of
that but we also want to put out our strongest side." Kane Williamson talks up the big picture for New Zealand
Pakistan have seven ODIs against New Zealand to firm up their planning
for the World Cup, five of which will be played first in the UAE from
December 8. And for Misbah-ul-Haq, the one-day captain, the lead-up period is all about "building confidence".
"It is the last chance for us to just look into the things, how we are
going into the World Cup," Misbah said. "So everybody will be focussed
and everybody just wants to put up a good show. I always believe that
confidence is the main thing."
Younis Khan
is one of those who received his captain's support, as he makes a
return to the ODI side yet again. Younis was left out for the series
against Australia, but a total of 717 runs in five Tests since could not
be ignored.
"The thinking is that now that we have him here, we give him full
confidence, because even as a senior you require the backing," Misbah
said. "It is not right to tell him that you are playing on a trial
basis. We will try that.... the way his role is, the way his
performances have been, the way his form is... We will try to support
him fully because he can play in a relaxed fashion. In this situation he
can play a very good role for the side.
"I think he is in good touch, the way he played in the last two Test
series. So, he is in good shape. That's going to really help him. [It]
doesn't matter that he is playing in a one-day competition because he
played on those same surfaces against top-quality bowlers and performed
well."
Besides contributions with the bat, Misbah is banking on Younis' experience to help the younger players through the series.
"I think he has seen enough, he is experienced enough to handle those
sort of conditions," Misbah said. "It is always important because these
kind of players, they are experienced, they know the situations of the
game, they can handle those situations and whenever these sort of
players are in, you can just say that 'okay they are going to win the
game for you'. He is going help other youngsters on how to just go about
the game. So, it's really important for us."
The other player receiving a lot of support from Misbah is Mohammad Irfan, who could be the team's X-factor at the World Cup with the bounce he generates.
"We just [want] to give him enough practice, just [want] to give him
enough confidence to play the games and also just to protect him for the
World Cup, because we don't want to lose him," Misbah said. "He will
have a tremendous impact in the World Cup. In Australia he could really
make a difference. So we will have to use him quite sensibly and that's
what we are trying to do."
There has been some criticism about the way Irfan has been handled by
the Pakistan thinktank. There appeared to be a strategy of wrapping the
fast bowler in cotton wool to prevent him from breaking down, but Misbah
was conscious of dispelling that notion.
"I think we don't protect him just for the sake of it. I think the media
highlights this quite unfairly," Misbah said, "When he doesn't play the
media says, 'you don't play him', if we play him and something happens,
they say 'see what kind of people are there in the thinktank, they
don't know how to protect Irfan'.
"People are working with Irfan. He has changed a lot. Look at his
fitness, specially his physique, his structure, a lot of work has
happened. His fitness has improved tremendously.
"It is not that we bench him always, because if we don't play him there
is no gain," Misbah said, "But at the same time, we want to ensure that
we don't put so much load that he becomes unfit like before. Obviously,
teams plan for four years for a World Cup, so keeping that in mind, we
do think about protecting him. After the World Cup, its a different
scenario, even if he was to play continuously, it is not that big an
issue."
Pakistan's other major issue is Saeed Ajmal's suspension for an illegal
bowling action. Mohammad Hafeez has also been under scrutiny, but Misbah
hoped both of them would be available for the World Cup.
"We now have a chance to let the bowlers take the responsibility and the
burden that Saeed endured for the last three-four years," Misbah said.
"In the two-three series that we have played without him, especially the
last series, bowlers have started understanding their responsibility in
difficult situations, powerplay overs or the end overs."
"I am always positive about Saeed's return, just looking at the way he
has worked hard and looking at his confidence. I have all the good
wishes for him to come back strongly at the earliest. We are hopeful
that Hafeez's action will also be free from any questions soon. But if
that was not the case, then it will affect the team balance."
#pakvsnz t20 series end in draw both team won 1,1 match .1st match won by pakistan by 7 wickets and 2nd match won by newzeland by 17 runs and series end in draw
Like the Test series that preceded the Twenty20 games, New Zealand
forged a comeback to beat Pakistan by 17 runs in Dubai to square the
two-match series 1-1. A chase of 145 proved challenging on a slow pitch
and New Zealand's slower bowlers made use of the conditions and
relatively little dew to keep a tight grip on the chase.
Despite the early wickets, the result of Man-of-the-Match Anton Devcich's
surprise spell at the top of the innings, Pakistan were in the game.
The New Zealand bowlers had squeezed the equation down to 54 off the
last five overs but with Shahid Afridi
at the crease, Pakistan had more than a whiff of a chance. That chance
evaporated in the 18th over, one of the worst of the innings, as Afridi
was caught behind off a pull shot, after having smacked the previous
ball bowled by a nervous James Neesham for a six.
Devcich opened the bowling for the first time in T20s and set up New
Zealand's good start with the wickets of Sarfraz Ahmed and Mohammad
Hafeez. Sarfraz's lbw was a doubtful decision, whereas Hafeez lobbed a
return catch off a straight length ball.
Even at 24 for 3 in the fifth over, Pakistan's chase had not disintegrated. Ahmed Shehzad, playing his first game since a skull fracture, anchored the innings with a 40-run stand with Saad Nasim.
Nasim's dismissal though instigated a stutter. Vettori, playing his first T20 international since 2012,
dismissed Shehzad for 33. Umar Akmal, Anwar Ali and Afridi fell in the
next three overs and the match ended in the 19th. The wickets were
neatly divided between the New Zealand bowlers - Devcich broke the top
order finishing with 2 for 16, Neesham's 3 for 25 scooped out the
middle-order and Kyle Mills then cleaned up the tail.
Both sides had gone into the game with a few changes. Pakistan brought
back Shehzad and Gul in place of Awais Zia and Mohammad Irfan. New
Zealand's changes were also forced by fitness concerns. A tight
hamstring kept Martin Guptill out, while Corey Anderson was rested as a
precaution after being hit on the helmet during the first T20. Dean
Brownlie and Tom Latham
were brought in their place and Kane Williamson had hoped that the
depth in batting could help the side do better than the 135 they managed
in the first game. They did, but only barely.
Williamson and Devcich did their job at the start of the innings,
sharing a solid 49-run stand in seven overs. Williamson led the way,
with pleasing footwork, especially against Gul, during his 32. After the
Powerplay though, things went downhill. Hafeez added another
left-handed batsman to his tally with Devcich's dismissal, Afridi got
Brownlie and Williamson in successive overs which left Latham and Ross
Taylor having to start all over again.
Taylor fell in the 13th over and the revival New Zealand needed,
although a brief one, came in the form of a lively stand between Latham
and Luke Ronchi,
the latter reprising his rescue-act role from the first match. Their
38-run stand came off 23 deliveries courtesy Latham's sweeps and two
towering, successive sixes from Ronchi.
Both players fell in successive overs towards the end of the innings,
but their stand had done enough to help New Zealand put together 51 runs
in the last five overs and their pace eventually made the difference.
Kane Williamson led with the bat again, along with Ross Taylor, as New Zealand posted a stiff total on a slow pitch and the fast bowler Matt Henry
blew away the Pakistan top order on his way to a maiden international
five-wicket haul. Pakistan had come within a couple of hits of chasing
down 300 in the fourth ODI but they fell well short of the target of 276
as their poor record in series-deciders over the past decade continued.
