Pakistan won the series after twelve years against New Zealand by winning the third match of the five-match series played in Karachi.
In the match played at the National Bank Stadium in Karachi on Wednesday, on the invitation of New Zealand, Pakistan, batting first, set a target of 288 runs for the visiting team to win and return to the series.
Chasing the target, New Zealand got off to a cautious but good start and their first wicket fell for a total of 83. Daryl Mitchell, who scored centuries in the first two matches of the series for New Zealand, could only score 21 runs in the crucial match.
Tom Blundell along with captain Tom Latham supported the innings and scored a half-century in the process. However, captain Tom Latham was dismissed for 45 runs.
At one point, New Zealand’s six wickets fell for 196 runs and it looked like Pakistan would win this match easily, but Cole McConkey, playing his debut, stood between Pakistan and victory till the end.
Cole McConkey scored a half-century in his first match. He brought his team close to victory but wickets continued to fall from the second end. McConkey remained unbeaten on 64 off 45 balls but could not win the match for his team.
New Zealand needed 28 runs to win in the last over of the innings but Matt Hainer was run out on the first ball.
Thus, after defeating New Zealand in the first two matches of the five-match series in Rawalpindi, Pakistan has also won the series by defeating them in the third match played in Karachi.
The credit for the win in the first two matches goes to batsman Fakhar Zaman as he played an important role in the victory by scoring 117 runs in the first match and 180 not out in the second match.
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Fakhar Zaman, who scored consecutive centuries for Pakistan in the last two matches, failed today and could score only 19 runs. But today was a good day for him in the sense that he has moved to the second position in the ICC ODI rankings.
After that, captain Babar Azam and Imamul Haq scored 108 runs in the second wicket partnership. Imam-ul-Haq was a few steps away from scoring a century and was dismissed for 90 runs while captain Babar Azam played an innings of 54 runs.
Apart from them, Mohammad Rizwan scored 32 runs and Agha Salman scored 31 runs.
On behalf of Pakistan, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Naseem Shah and Mohammad Wasim took two wickets each while Agha Salman dismissed one player.
The fourth match of the series between the two teams will be played in Karachi on May 5.