Pakistan's cricket captain Babar Azam, left, and Pakistan's Mohammad Rizwan run between the wickets during the Cricket Twenty20 World Cup match between India and Pakistan in Dubai, UAE, Sunday, Oct. 24, 2021. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)
By 84 runs, New Zealand defeated Pakistan by 292 runs (Hay 99*, Abbas 41, Muqeem 2-33) and 208 runs (Ashraf 73, Naseem 35, Sears 5-59).
New Zealand won the series 2-0 thanks to Mitchell Hay’s unbeaten 99 and their fearsome fast bowling partnership, which blew away Pakistan by 84 runs. In the first innings, Pakistan’s spinner Sufiyan Muqeem’s unflinching and piercing strokes helped them pull New Zealand back before their death bowling once more failed them. As Pakistan lost their top half for 32 in the first 12 overs, the match became a formality and was set at 293 to keep the series alive. Rizwan won the toss once more in Hamilton under cloudy skies, decided to put New Zealand in, hoping that his seam bowlers would get early wickets on a green surface.
Rhys Mariu and Nick Kelly, who had only played one ODI between them, were the openers for New Zealand. With eight wides in the first four overs, Pakistan again lacked discipline, but New Zealand took the lead with 11 off Akif Javed’s first over. New Kelly and Mariu needed just six overs to reach their partnership of 50 after Pakistan wasted promising bowling conditions in the first half hour thanks to another 12 off his second. The kind of delivery that Haris Rauf was using to get the ball back in was what led to the breakthrough. Pakistan began to take control of the game after he angled one in to get Kelly an inside edge.
Babar Azam snagged a catch that sent Mariu back for a sluggish 18 after diving sharply to his right for the first time. Their fielding supported the bowlers for the first time. With 97 for 2 in the 15th over, New Zealand appeared to be in good shape, but Muqeem’s spell changed everything. He beat Mitchell in the air as he charged down the crease in just five deliveries, Rizwan whipping the bails off, spinning the ball both ways and making excellent use of flight. As Nicholls, who struggled in a similar manner to how he did in Napier, found himself stuck at the crease as a full delivery rapped his front pad in front of the stumps, Javed helped himself to another from the opposite end. Between the 15th and the 25th over, only 25 runs were scored, and the pressure started to show. When a ball from what the bowler thought was an edge fizzed through to the keeper and Wasim thought he had Bracewell, no one else seemed to hear it.
Pakistan began to focus on New Zealand’s lower middle order after the following delivery, when there was no doubt about the outside edge getting all the way to Rizwan. Rizwan might have been able to keep Muqeem, who was suffocating New Zealand, at one end, but he went back to the quicks, and Hay and Muhammad Abbas started to settle down slowly. It was a very different kind of innings for Abbas, who had become the fastest half-centurion on debut earlier in the week by getting 20 off his first 52 balls. However, the pair was building a partnership and confidence. Abbas was confident enough when Muqeem returned to pick him off for a pair off boundaries and 12 off his over, resulting in an attritional 50-run stand. Even as Muqeem drew Abbas into miscuing one and ended a 77-run stand, New Zealand were up past 200 with ten overs to go.
Hay began to show his skill from the other end, smashing Haris Rauf for a pair of sixes. While Pakistan’s quicks’ failure to be more effective on a strip that offered them so much was concerning, Muqeem’s 2-33 may have encouraged the bowler. Wasim and Hay squared off in a one-sided contest over the final six deliveries. As New Zealand increased to 292, Hay plundered him for 49 runs in his final three overs, including 22 off the final one. This put him within one run of a well-deserved century. Ben Sears took his first wicket in an ODI on April 2, 2025, when New Zealand played Pakistan in the second ODI in Hamilton. Getty Images: Ben Sears scored five runs for his first ODI victory.
It appeared to be well above par for the circumstances on paper, and Will O’Rourke and Jacob Duffy quickly demonstrated that. Similar to the first ODI, Shafique spent a lot of time dangerously teasing the ball with the outside edge of his bat. When he made contact, the ball flew up to Daryl Mitchell at first slip, who easily pouched. The top three slipped edging to slips. Pakistan fell to 9 for 3 as Babar Azam was unable to capitalize on Duffy’s bounce and was given second slip. Mitchell was back in action for Imam-ul-Haq as Pakistan fell to 9 for 3. Ben Sears took one of the wickets, and Rizwan and Salman Ali Agha both left without reaching double digits. Pakistan’s fast bowling had not been as quick, accurate, or consistent as New Zealand’s, and it had ended the match in the first Powerplay.
The remainder of the innings was devoted to damage control and restoring Pakistan’s respectability. Faheem Ashraf’s half-century, when all else was lost, may have achieved some measure of it because he was the only Pakistan batsman who could handle the probing short length that New Zealand kept hitting. However, Pakistan continued to suffer physical and non-physical blows. When Rauf turned his attention away from an O’Rourke delivery that was rearing, the helmet gave him a sickening flush. He had to leave after a lengthy visit from the physiotherapist revealed that he had failed a concussion test. A few overs later, Akif Javed took one to the badge. To Duffy’s relief, he didn’t last long, top-edging to the slips to take his third wicket.
As Haris’ concussion replacement, Naseem Shah, played an entertaining role alongside Ashraf, almost as if being freed from bowling duties enhanced his batting. He reached his career-best ODI score of 43 off 40 with a combination of high-risk shots and genuine cricket strokes as Pakistan continued to frustrate New Zealand and hide the true extent of their disparity. Sears finally won with the fourth stump line sixty runs later, and Ashraf’s innings ended with 73 runs off 80 balls. Smith scored his career-high with a magnificent six over cover as Naseem continued to pound away. An unlikely half-century was brought about by a lovely whip from Nathan Smith to square leg, but reality would soon knock. He only managed to get an outside edge through to the keeper as he tried to get Sears out of the ground, and New Zealand won the match they had already confirmed about 30 overs earlier.
About the Author
