A maiden century by teenage opener Ahmed Shehzad inspired Pakistan to a 41-run win over New Zealand Thursday to wrap up the six-match one-day series with a game to spare. The 19-year-old cracked 115 off 109 deliveries in a masterful innings in Hamilton as Pakistan posted 268-9 after being sent into bat first in the fifth ODI.
New Zealand, who are on a rotten run of form, made the worst possible start to their reply, losing a wicket on the first ball when Jesse Ryder was run out and they never threatened from there. Their innings came to a halt in the 47th over at 227 to give Pakistan an unbeatable 3-1 lead in the series with one match washed out. New Zealand have now lost 15 of their past 16 ODIs.
With the World Cup beckoning, it was a timely performance from Shehzad, who delivered on the promise he had hinted at in his previous seven international innings, which produced a total of 173 runs. "What a talent he is," said captain Shahid Afridi as Pakistan celebrated their first ODI series win since they beat the West Indies in 2008.
"After a long long time Pakistan's won an away series and at the right time, before the World Cup." New Zealand were left to rue another dismal batting effort. "I think we pretty much wanted to chase no more than 90 in the last 10 overs. We did that but we lost too many wickets in that middle period so we put a lot of pressure on the lower order," said New Zealand captain Ross Taylor.
But it will be a worry for Pakistan that, apart from Shehzad's century, the other batsmen failed to get on top of a largely medium pace New Zealand attack. Umar Akmal's 32 before he was run out by wicketkeeper Brendon McCullum was the second highest score while Misbah-ul-Haq, the dominant performer in the series so far, struggled to 25 before he fell to an acrobatic catch by Jacob Oram at deep square leg.
After winning the toss and opting to bowl first in overcast conditions, New Zealand made the surprise move of resting their best swing exponent Tim Southee. Styris claimed the crucial scalp of Shehzad, who hit 12 fours and three sixes in his lengthy innings, all of them off new ball bowler Hamish Bennett. By the time Shehzad was dismissed Pakistan were in a healthy position of 197-4 in the 38th over but they were unable to capitalise on it over the remainder of their innings.
Afridi and Umar Akmal could only scrape together 39 runs in the batting power play between the 44th and 48th overs. Taylor, captaining New Zealand after Daniel Vettori was ruled out with a hamstring strain, reached 69 when he mistimed an attempt to sweep Afridi out of the ground and was trapped leg before wicket. The last match in the series is in Auckland on Saturday.
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SCOREBOARD Pakistan:
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M. Hafeez c N. McCullum b Mills 14
A. Shehzad c Franklin b Styris 115
Kamran Akmal run out (Mills) 17
Y. Khan c Styris b N. McCullum 21
Misbah c Oram b Styris 25
U. Akmal run out (B.McCullum) 32
Shahid Afridi c Guptill b Oram 24
Abdul Razzaq c How b Mills 3
Wahab Riaz not out 2
Umar Gul c Ryder b Oram 1
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Extras: (b 7, 1b 2, w 4, nb 1) 14
Total: (9 wkts; 50 overs) 268
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Fall of wickets: 1-20, 2-73, 3-120, 4-197, 5-205, 6-248, 7-252, 8-265, 9-268.
Bowling: Mills 10-2-42-2, Bennett 8-0-56-0, Oram 10-0-49-2 (1w), N. McCullum 10-0-40-1, Styris 9-0-51-2 (2w), Franklin 3-0-21-0 (1nb, 1w)
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New Zealand:
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M. Guptill c U.Akmal b Shoaib 65
J. Ryder run out (Misbah) 0
J. How c Hafeez b Wahab 12
R. Taylor lbw b S Afridi 69
B. McCullum c sub (Rehman) b Afridi 9
S. Styris run out (Younis Khan) 9
J. Franklin b Wahab Riaz 16
N. McCullum b Umar Gul 14
J. Oram c U Akmal b Umar Gul 10
K. Mills not out 4
H. Bennett b Wahab Riaz 3
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Extras: (lb 8, w 7, nb 1) 16
Total: (all out; 46.5 overs) 227
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Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-53, 3-112, 4-131, 5-150, 6-192, 7-194, 8-207, 9-222, 10-227.
Bowling: Abdul Razzaq 4-1-19-0, Shoaib Akhtar 8-0-32-1 (1w), Wahab Riaz 8.5-0-51-3 (1nb, 5w), Umar Gul 7-0-28-2, Shahid Afridi 10-0-55-2, Mohammad Hafeez 9-0-34-0 (1w)
Toss: New Zealand
Result: Pakistan won by 41 runs
Man-of-the-match: Ahmed Shehzad
Series: Pakistan 3-1
Umpires: Tony Hill (NZL), Steve Davis (AUS)
TV umpire: Chris Gaffaney (NZL)
Match referee: Alan Hurst (AUS).
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