Pakistan do not go down without a fight

After what was a much anticipated ODI series between Pakistan and New Zealand has now come to an end after a nail-biting finish to officially hand the hosts a convincing 5-0 whitewash.

Pakistan had gone into the final ODI match with a very new looking team with a few changes made to the bowling order and the batting order. With the likes of Umar Amin, Amir Yamin and Mohammad Nawaz coming in to replace Azhar Ali, Mohammad Amir and Hasan Ali respectively. However, I definitely did not agree with some of these inclusions. I strongly felt that with the failed top order in the last game, Azhar Ali should have been brought back into the side on the basis that he provides the sanity to the Pakistan batting order. Moreover, I did feel that Mohammad Amir was a bit unlucky to be left out however, I was in the affirmative to having Mohammad Nawaz back into the side to provide another spinning option.

Winning the toss and electing to bat first at the Basin Reserve, the start that New Zealand had certainly sent vibes that the tourists were going to go the full journey. With 50 runs up in the first 5 overs of the match, the wicket of Munro halted New Zealand's surge and allowed the bowlers to settle and not let New Zealand off the chain. Whilst wickets became scarce, Pakistan was not letting the foot of the Kiwis' throats as they were forced to make mistakes. But it was the mistakes that Pakistan made which cost the most in hindsight of the game. With some incredibly sloppy piece of fielding that would have had the likes of Martin Guptill run out, eventually led to more pain and fight back. I felt that it was the missed run out by Fahim Ashraf that summed up Pakistan's series in the fact that they had gone through every single match with close to no luck.

However, despite the top order partnerships, Pakistan had brilliantly restricted New Zealand to 271 runs which I felt was around 50 runs below par. This only highlighted how well Pakistan have bowled collectively but most of the credit must go to Shadab Khan and Mohammad Nawaz who consolidated the middle overs and created a drought of boundaries to allow Ruman Raees and Amir Yamin to take wickets at the other end.

With 272 runs to win, Pakistan needed to have some top order resilience. But again like in every match, early wickets had them in trouble and essentially out of the game before the 10th over. After some incredibly poor and undisciplined batting, Pakistan was begging at 5/57 with only Haris Sohail left at the crease to bat with the tail. Sohail has been the pick of the batsmen for me this series from the Pakistan side as I strongly believe that his incredible technique, class and ability to bat with the tail has certainly reassured Pakistan that there is some hope. Sohail's knock of 63 combined with 19-year-old Shadab Khan's 54 saw glimpses of a Pakistani resurrection as they took the game deeper and deeper into the final overs. But as the asking run rate began to soar so did the wickets. Despite losing the game it was very powerful to see that each and every single lower order batsmen did not go out without a fight and it certainly demonstrated that the spirit has not been lost and that they are still motivated. Amir Yamin's magnificent fighting knock of 32 was another standout performance in the heat of the moment. But this game only highlighted the failures of Pakistan's batsmen and the lack of contribution that the top order has done in Pakistan's losses.

Previously when I had previewed the series, I stated that it was going to be a battle between Pakistan's bowling and New Zealand's batting. And the story of the series remains consistent in that Pakistan had bowled very well throughout the series to restrict New Zealand in the first innings to under-par scores. But it was Pakistan's batting that had let them down immensely this series with no opening partnership able to bat out the first ten overs of the match.

It is fair to say when looking back at this series on paper that Pakistan was completely obliterated and was never in contention of winning. Overall, I believe that there is no doubt that New Zealand was the far better team on the day and Pakistan had played well below what their reputation suggests. But I believe that for Pakistan, there have been some positives that have come out of the whitewash.

All credit must go to New Zealand who I believe were restricted to under-par totals by Pakistan to come out and bowl at the tourists to keep them from chasing down the targets. I think that series was a lot closer than it ended up looking like and that New Zealand has been the far better team throughout this ODI series.

As I usually do, I tend to rate each player from both sides who have taken part in the series and come up with a final XI that would best represent this series based only on the matches that they have played.

NEW ZEALAND TEAM

Martin Guptill:  8.5/10
Colin Munro:  5/10
Kane Williamson: 9/10
Ross Taylor:  8/10
Tom Lathan: 3/10
Colin de Grondhomme: 8.5/10
Henry Nicholls: 7/10
Mitchell Santner: 7/10
Todd Astle: 5/10
Trent Boult: 8.5/10
Tim Southee: 8.5/10
Lockie Ferguson: 6.5/10
Matt Herny: 8/10

PAKISTAN TEAM

Azhar Ali: 1/10
Fakhar Zaman: 6/10
Babar Azam: 2/10
Imam ul Haq: 1/10
Mohammad Hafeez: 6/10
Shoaib Malik: 2/10
Sarfaraz Ahmed: 5/10
Shadab Khan: 8/10
Haris Sohail: 8/10
Faheem Ashraf: 7/10
Mohammad Amir: 5/10
Umar Amin: 3/10
Hasan Ali: 6.5/10
Ruman Raess: 6.5/10
Mohammad Nawaz: 7.5/10


NEW ZEALAND/PAKISTAN ODI SERIES 2018 XI: (Based solely on players statistics and performances throughout the series)

Martin Guptill (New Zealand), Fahkar Zaman (Pakistan), Kane Williamson (New Zealand) (c), Ross Taylor (New Zealand), Haris Sohail (Pakistan), Sarfaraz Ahmed (Pakistan) (wk), Henry Nicholls (New Zealand), Shadab Khan (Pakistan), Tim Southee (New Zealand), Hasan Ali (Pakistan), Trent Boult (New Zealand), Colin de Grondhomme (New Zealand) (12th Man)