‘We never really fired a shot’, Williamson laments
CRICKET AUCKLAND: The Black Caps’ 12match ODI winning streak against Pakistan has been snapped, and it could hardly have been more convincing.
A sixwicket victory with 57 balls to spare has seen Pakistan level the series at 11 ahead of this morning’s decider, and it was remarkably untroubled in doing so.
Set a measly 210 to win, Pakistan received its only scare when opener Imam ulHaq had to retire hurt after being struck on the helmet by a Lockie Ferguson bouncer. The dazed Imam went off in the ambulance for a concussion check, but that brought the prodigious Babar Azam to the wicket, and he teamed up with Fakhar Zaman to punish the Black Caps bowlers.
But there was already little doubt about the result, after Pakistan expertly tied down the Black Caps batsmen in a superb display of bowling on the restrictive Abu Dhabi wicket.
‘‘We never really fired a shot,’’ lamented Black Caps captain Kane Williamson.
‘‘There was a bit of scrapping which got us a total, but it certainly wasn’t enough on that surface. Today we were certainly outplayed.’’
Ross Taylor was the only form of resistance for the visitors, adding to his 80 from the opening ODI with an unbeaten 86 from 120 balls, but he did not get the support required as only two other batsmen reached 20, neither in quick time.
Neither George Worker (28 off 50 balls) nor Henry Nicholls (33 off 63) looked particularly at ease at the crease, but both batsmen were also put in difficult situations as failures from Colin Munro (13) and the duo of Williamson and Tom Latham (one run apiece) put the Black Caps in early strife.
To be fair, there was bad luck — Williamson was run out by a deflection while backing up at
NEW ZEALAND
G Worker b Hafeez 28
C Munro c Hafeez b Afridi 13
K Williamson run out (Afridi) 1
R Taylor not out 86
T Latham b Afridi 1
H Nicholls bAli 33
C de Grandhomme c Ali b Khan 3
T Southee c ImamulHaq b Afridi 13
I Sodhi b Afridi 13
T Boult bAli 1
L Ferguson not out 1
Extras (6lb, 1nb, 9w) 16
Total (for 9 wkts) 209
Fall: 1/14 (Munro), 2/25 (Williamson), 3/71 (Worker), 4/73 (Latham), 5/148 (Nicholls), 6/157 (Grandhomme), 7/177 (Southee), 8/198 (Sodhi), 9/199 (Boult).
Bowling: F Ashraf 7 overs, 1 maiden, 26 runs, 0 wickets (1w); S Afridi 91384 (2w), H Ali 90592 (1nb), M Hafeez 100311 (1w), S Khan 101251 (1w), I Wasim 50240.
PAKISTAN
I ImamUlHaq (retired hurt)
F Zaman c Sodhi b Ferguson
B Azam c Nicholls b Ferguson
M Hafeez not out
S Malik c Sodhi b Ferguson 10
S Ahmed c Latham b Sodhi 13
S Khan not out 2
Extras (1lb, 9w) 10
Total (for 4 wkts, 40.3 overs) 212
Fall: 1/155 (Zaman), 2/156 (Azam), 3/177 (Malik), 4/204 (Ahmed).
Bowling: T Boult 100600 (3w), T
Southee 9.30480 (1w), K Williamson 1070, I Sodhi 62211 (1w), C de Grandhomme 40150.
Result: Pakistan won by 6 wickets
Series: 11.
the nonstriker’s end — but there was nothing lucky about the rest of Pakistan’s bowling performance.
Wickets at regular intervals put a squeeze on scoring. Eighteenyearold Shaheen Afridi was superb in taking four for 38, but once again, the Black Caps’ biggest problems came while facing spin.
The New Zealand middle order had no answers to Shadab Khan (one for 25 from 10 overs) and the underfire Mohammad Hafeez (one for 31 from 10), with a remarkable 21over drought between boundaries putting Pakistan firmly on the front foot.
Williamson acknowledged his side would need to improve its performance against spin in the decider.
‘‘I think in hindsight we’ll address some parts of our innings that we’ll definitely want to improve on. It’s important we make those improvements looking ahead to Dubai, because the surfaces have those similarities and spin is a big part of the innings.’’
While a partnership between Taylor and Nicholls added 75 runs, it came off 129 balls, and when Nicholls departed, Taylor struggled to find the strike, or a partner capable of significantly boosting the run rate.
The end result was 209 for nine , and it was never likely to be enough. This time, there was no magic from Trent Boult, although Ferguson impressed again by taking three wickets, including a freak dismissal of Shoaib Malik, who smashed a pull shot into the shoulder of Nicholls at short leg, sending the ball ballooning into the air for Ish Sodhi to take the catch.
However, by then the game was already won. The work of Fakhar (88 off 88) and Babar (46 off 50) had already created a comfortable chase and set up a tantalising decider.
Allrounder Marcus Stoinis took three wickets to fire Australia to a sevenrun win over South Africa at the Adelaide Oval on Friday, ending the hosts’ record sevenmatch losing streak and levelling the threematch oneday international series.
Sent in to bat, Australia again laboured against a formidable South African attack and was dismissed for 231 in the 49th over after squandering a number of starts.
But a lionhearted performance by Stoinis and the Australian pacemen overwhelmed Faf du Plessis’s men, who were restricted to 224 for nine off their 50 overs. — NZME/ Reuters
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