Published: Jan 31, 2016, 07:15 AM (IST)
Edited: Jan 31, 2016, 08:34 AM (IST)
At first glance a score of 290 does look pretty formidable but New Zealand will be very content about keeping Pakistan to just that especially after the blazing start they were given early on. At one stage even a score of 400 was being floated around as a remote possibility but Brendon McCullum unleashed his bag of tricks as skipper even through the pain of the back niggle to scupper Pakistan in the latter overs. While the score is still a challenging one, New Zealand have the pendulum of momentum in their favour. Pakistan will be upset about how they blew a fine start. Full Scorecard: Pakistan vs New Zealand 2015-16, 3rd ODI at Auckland
Pakistan did not have the most ideal start to the proceedings. The openers Ahmed Shehzad and Azhar Ali were removed cheaply by Trent Boult and Matt Henry respectively. They were being troubled by Henry but were quite confident against Boult who failed to find his radar early on. Shehzad fell to a poor shot. LIVE UPDATES: Pakistan vs New Zealand 2015-16, 3rd ODI at Auckland
However, that’s when Pakistan started to wrest initiative from their hosts. Mohammad Hafeez and Babar Azam were seemingly unfazed by the early loss of wickets and played some gorgeous shots. Hafeez in particular looked very fluent though Azam was not far behind. They aimed to bat at a high run rate but did not take too many risks in doing so. They ensured they put the bad balls away.
Their partnership yielded 134 runs before Hafeez was finally removed by Mitchell Santner. The batsmen had targetted the left-arm spinner and were scoring heaps of runs against him but Hafeez played a careless slog sweep of him straight to the man at deep backward square leg. Shoaib Malik was the new man in.
Pakistan had crossed the 200-run mark inside 30 overs and things looked bright for them. Alongside Azam, Malik scored freely although he had a few close shaves. He was dismissed by Boult for a 27-ball 32 when he edged a cut to the wicket-keeper. Pakistan’s downfall began at that point.
Henry got the wicket of Azam soon after for a finely crafted 77-ball 83. The sudden flurry of wickets did well to stem the run flow for the men in green kits. It was then up to Mohammad Rizwan and Sarfraz Ahmed to take Pakistan deep as a wicket would be gateway to the tailenders. They showed bit of a fight albeit at a far lesser run rate.
The brave Kiwis were awarded with their share of fortune to break the partnership. Elliott was driven straight back by Ahmed to which the bowler aimlessly stuck his hand out in follow through. He got a fingertip onto the ball as it went its course onto the stumps to find Rizwan’s bat in the air! Pakistan had lost another.
Wahab Riaz did not look comfortable during his stay at the crease and was removed by Corey Anderson for 11. Mohammad Aamer and Rahat Ali were done in by the extra pace of Milne and they fell for one run and a duck respectively. Sarfraz was left to wage a lone battle at the other end. In attempt to protect his inept partner in Mohammad Irfan from the pace of Milne, he decided to keep strike and tried to launch one and launch he did but without horizontal distance. It skied high and keeper Ronchi settled under it nicely. He fell for a 50-ball 41.
Once again McCullum’s captaincy was of essence. In his search for wickets, he did not hesitate bowling out Henry before the 40th over. Even when the going was tough he invested in slip fielders. He placed his best catcher — Martin Guptill — at all the hot spots as per the traits of each batsman and the result was Guptill ended with four catches.
