291/5 (48.3)
CR : 6.00
288/7 (50.0)
CR : 5.76
Pakistan won by 5 wickets 🏆
Player of the Match
Fakhar Zaman
117(114)
Over 48
Pakistan 286/5
Mohammad Rizwan38(32)
Mohammad Nawaz7(9)
Blair Tickner1-52(9.0)
48.1
1
R Ravindra to M Nawaz
Good length around off, Nawaz drives it down to long-off for a single.
48.2
0
R Ravindra to M Rizwan
Fuller on the stumps, Rizwan defends it back to the bowler.
48.3
4
R Ravindra to M Rizwan
FOUR! That's the game! Tosses it up fuller outside off, Rizwan slog sweeps it over the midwicket region hard as the ball races away to the fence one bounce and over the ropes for a boundary. So, Rizwan hits the winning runs as Pakistan win this game by 5 wickets with 9 balls to spare to go 1-0 up in the 5-match series.
PAK won by 5 wickets
12:01 AM IST: Pakistan register a 5 wicket victory against New Zealand in the series opener at Rawalpindi to go 1-0 up in the 5-match series. New Zealand were restricted to a par score of 288/7 in their 50 overs on the back of Daryl Mitchell's second ODI century and 86 from Will Young. The Pak pacers shared 6 wickets between them in the first innings.
The chase began on a very positive note for the hosts as Fakhar Zaman (117) and Imam-ul-Haq (60) added 124 runs for the first wicket in 21.2 overs when Imam was dismissed by Ish Sodhi. Skipper Babar Azam then added 90 runs for the 2nd wicket getting out for 49 and also became the second fastest Asian to cross 12000 international runs in the process.
Shan Masood was well set up by Adam Milne (2/60) and the requirement was 72 in 74 balls. Mohammad Rizwan played a good hand in the later half after Zaman fell scoring his century and guided the hosts to the win. The Kiwi bowlers were expensive. Milne got 2 with Tickner, Sodhi and Ravindra getting one wicket apiece.
Fakhar Zaman (Player of the Match): "Yes, the plan was to go after the bowling in the new ball and bat long and glad we did that. Yes, it was a good start and out of the top 3 one has to bat 40 overs and luckily it was my day today and glad to perform well for the team."
Tom Latham (New Zealand Captain): "The score that we got was around par in the position we were in. Mitchell played a fantastic innings. The wicket was getting harder and harder to bat on. It was hard for guys to start when they first came in. At the halfway mark we were pretty happy with just under 300 but the way Pakistan played. We were looking for early wickets but they managed to built two big partnerships at the top of the order and sort of managed to get back in the chase there and we weren't quite able to make any inroads early on.
Sometimes these surfaces are harder to bat and sometimes its not necessarily 10 runs an over at the backend so if you get more than its ideal. As I said Pakistan did really well at the top. Fakhar played a really great innings and obviously Babar as well. I think if we managed to get some early wickets then maybe things would have been different."
Sometimes these surfaces are harder to bat and sometimes its not necessarily 10 runs an over at the backend so if you get more than its ideal. As I said Pakistan did really well at the top. Fakhar played a really great innings and obviously Babar as well. I think if we managed to get some early wickets then maybe things would have been different."
Babar Azam (Pakistan Captain): "Thanks to the all mighty and thanks to everyone that we got our 500th win in ODIS. We did not start well with the ball but came back with the ball in the back 10 overs. Good to see. Yes Naseem bowled well throughout and Fakhar was magnificent. I am happy for both of them and the spinners were great. Imam gave a great start and Fakhar's 100. All round performance is what we wanted and we got it. It's just the start and we want to improve in certain areas and come back with an even better performance."
That's it from the series opener. Ninaad Dixit here signing off on behalf of my co-commentators Ayan Chatterjee, Deepak Prakash and scorer Ashok Daima. Stay tuned for more cricketing action from around the world.