Fakhar stars in Pakistan’s thrashing win over NZ

30 April, 2023

RAWALPINDI - In-form opener Fakhar Zaman struck his third-consecutive century and propelled Pakistan to an astonishing victory over New Zealand in the second ODI of the five-match series here at Pindi Cricket Stadium. 

Opener Imam-ul-Haq (24) left Pakistan earlier today after he was dismissed for the total of 66 runs. But, Fakhar remained top of the table with his magnificent performance. Set to chase 337 runs, Fakhar got full support from skipper Babar Azam after Imam departed. They both scored a match-building partnership of 135 runs.   Babar went out on a soft dismissal off Ish Sodhi after scoring 65 runs. Fakhar kept going and in the end, partnered strongly with Mohammad Rizwan to complete highest run-chase in ODIs in Rawalpindi. The left-handed batter remained not out for 180 runs laced with 17 boundaries and six maximums. Meanwhile, he also became the fastest Asian to score 3,000 runs.  

It was Fakhar’s third consecutive century in ODIs, which made him only the fourth Pakistan batter to do so after Zaheer Abbas, Saeed Anwar and Babar. Rizwan, on the other hand, brought up his 19th half-century and that too in a winning cause for Pakistan. The wicket-keeper batter smoked 54 not out including six boundaries. For New Zealand, Matt Henry, Henry Shipley and Sodhi shared a wicket apiece.  

Fakhar powers Pakistan to thrashing win over New Zealand in 2nd ODI

Earlier, Daryl Mitchell hammered another hundred to help New Zealand post huge 336-5. After being sent into bat first, New Zealand lost their opener Will Young in the sixth over. Haris Rauf, who ended up taking four wickets in his 10 overs, started the proceedings by removing Young (19) in the sixth over. 

Mitchell and Chad Bowes built the innings from there with Bowes scoring his maiden ODI half-century. The two batters were too good against Pakistani bowlers who went for plenty of runs initially. They stitched 86 runs off 80 balls together to put New Zealand in a position to score something over 300.   It was again Haris Rauf, who provided a breakthrough to Pakistan as they left out their key bowler Shaheen Shah Afridi for this match. Rauf bowled a slower one to get rid of Bowes, who scored run-a-ball 51.  Later on, Mitchell got the support of captain Tom Latham, who in the end missed his century by just two runs. Latham and Mitchell partnered strongly for 183 runs and ensured a big total in the first innings.  

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Latham was given out on a review when nobody else believed it except Rauf. Mitchell, who was dropped on 96 by Naseem Shah, gave his wicket to the same man in 46th over. He smashed 129 runs laced with eight boundaries and three maximums. Haris Rauf took four wickets while Naseem managed only a scalp.  

Meanwhile, in-form all-rounder Iftikhar Ahmed replaced injured Haris Sohail in Pakistan’s ODI squad for the last three ODIs to be played in Karachi.   Haris succumbed to an injury due to a nasty collision with his teammate Shadab Khan in the training session and landed awkwardly on his left shoulder. 

The batter was then taken to a local hospital in Rawalpindi and underwent scans.

Scores in Brief

PAKISTAN 337-3 (Fakhar Zaman 178*, Babar Azam 65, M Rizwan 54*) beat NEW ZEALAND 336-5 (Daryl Mitchell 129, Tom Latham 98, Chad Bowes 51; Haris Rauf 4-78, Naseem Shah 1-49) by 7 wickets.

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