For the first time in the ODI series, the kiwi boys looked to have control and domination with the ball. Pretty much credit goes to Tom Latham for correcting his mistakes and choosing to bat first on a wicket, where they failed to chase on two successive occasions.
No new Zealand batter scored big runs, but they had key partnerships throughout their batting innings. Will Young set the tone for a big score with 87 runs off 91 balls. A good hand by Mark Chapman who scored 43 off 32 balls provided the much needed impetus to New Zealand in the middle overs.
Latham was playing captain’s knock but it longing to score runs quickly, he lost his wicket just at the beginning of final powerplay. Only two half centuries yet New Zealand reached the 299 runs mark, however, Pakistan pulled things back in the last few overs but not enough to restrict New Zealand under a chaseble target.
Henry Shipley Was At His Best
Pakistan actually never got going in the chase, they soaked too many dot deliveries and the mounted pressure forced them to lose wickets. Brilliant first 6 overs saw earned dismissal of Shan Masood, then in the 7th over Henry Shipley dismissed Babar Azam.
That was a big wicket, knowing how damaging a player he can be, but Pakistan were 30 for 2. From thereon, the duo of Fakhar Zaman and Mohammad Rizwan played too slow, almost at 3 runs per over and Shiply got the breakthrough for New Zealand by dismissing Rizwan for 14.
The frustrated Zaman gave his wicket in an identical fashion as the previous two ODIs trying to swing hard but only reaching gloves of the wicketkeeper. He scored 32 off 64 balls.
A solid partnership between Iftikhar Ahmad and Agha Salman (57 off 57 balls) brought Pakistan back in the game but they were always short of wickets if they wanted to take chance for big runs. Henry Shipley once again put an end to the partnership by dismissing Salman.
Rachin Ravindra All Rounder Performance Sealed The Game
Rachin Ravindra scored 28 off 20 balls with bat, then knocked out Fakhar Zaman. But his match winning strikes came in 42nd over when he reduced Pakistan from 216 for 6 to 216 for 8 in a single over, sending back Usmana Mir and Shaheen Shah Afridi.
Tom Latham had some plan to bowl his spinners against Pakistan’s pinch hitters, and it definitely worked out. Two overs later Ish Sodhi dismissed Mohammad Waseem Junior with a mesmerizing leg spin delievery.
In the end, the Pakistani hopes were in hands of Iftikhar Ahmad who kept pushing and scaring New Zealand bowlers. He scored 93 off 70 balls, and kept chipping away 10-12 runs but unfortunately he ran out of partners at the other end.
Finally, a bullet throw from McConchie shunned the last hope for Pakistan as Haris Rauf was runout. Iftikhar remained unbeaten and Pakistan’s short stay at the top of the ICC ODI Men’s team ranking was over.