Pakistan vs New Zealand: Kiwis clinch first away series win in 49 years

New Zealand clinched their first away win over Pakistan in 49 years as they defeated the hosts by 123 runs in the final Test in Abu Dhabi on Friday.

The Kiwi bowlers produced their best efforts with William Somerville, Tim Southee and Ajaz Patel scalping three wickets each. After a good batting performance in the first innings, all Pakistan could manage was 156 runs in their chase of 280.

Resuming the day at 272/4, New Zealand piled on as many runs as they could as Henry Nicholls, who was unbeaten on 90 went on to score an unbeaten 126 off 266 deliveries that was studded with 12 fours. He received support at the other end through cameos from Colin De Grandhomme (26 off 19 balls) and Southee (15 off 10 balls) as they finished on a high, declaring their innings on 353/7.

Having a target of 280 to chase down to win the series, Pakistan got off to the worst possible start when they were reduced for 55/5 at one stage. Among the top five batsmen, only Imam-Ul-Haq was able to register a double-digit score (22 off 54 balls) as the backbone of their batting was broken by Patel, De Grandhomme and Somerville.

Hafeez, playing his last innings for Pakistan in the whites couldn’t bow out on a high as he was done in by a beauty of a delivery from Southee that went through his defences and completely made a mess of the furniture behind him.

Barring Babar Azam who scored a gritty 51 of 114 deliveries, no other Pakistan batsman could hardly make any impact whatsoever as the wickets kept o falling one after the other. The best partnership in the innings was that of 43 runs between Azam and skipper Sarfraz Ahmed as they could barely manage 156 to concede the match and the series 1-2.

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