Published: Dec 19, 2014, 05:25 PM (IST)
Edited: Dec 19, 2014, 06:44 PM (IST)
Dec 19, 2014
New Zealand managed to breach the 50-run mark in the 13th over of their innings, with the dismissal of Martin Guptill being the only they have faced so far in the fifth and final One-Day International (ODI) against Pakistan at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi on Friday. Dean Brownlie and Kane Williamson were batting on scores of 18 from 33 balls and 21 from 36 balls respectively. Anwar Ali and Shahid Afridi were brought into the attack after Mohammad Irfan and Zulfiqar Babar opened the bowling for the hosts.
New Zealand won the toss and elected to bat. While New Zealand decided to bring in Anton Devcich and Nathan McCullum in place of Corey Anderson, who has been woefully out of form in the series so far, as well as Daniel Vettori, who had to fly home to attend a wedding. Pakistan decided to replace Mohammad Hafeez and Sohail Tanvir with Asad Shafiq and Zulfiqar Babar.
The five-match series is currently level 2-2 after New Zealand won a thriller of of a game in the fourth ODI at the same venue on Wednesday. A series victory will be a great morale booster for the winners, with both teams set to play a tournament or two more after the end of the series before the onset of the World Cup. The two sides had earlier played a three-Test series and a two-match Twenty20 International (T20I) series, both of which were drawn 1-1.
