Islamabad, May 6 (UNI) Pakistan’s men’s cricket team defeated New Zealand on Friday night by a big margin of 102 runs to become the world No. 1 team in the One-Day International (ODI) format of the game.
In the fourth day and night match of the ongoing series, the Pakistani team set a huge total of 334 runs at the board off 50 overs with the help of a century by captain Babar Azam at the National Stadium in the country’s southern port city of Karachi.
Shan Masood and Agha Salman also made 44 and 58 runs respectively before Iftikhar Ahmed and Shaheen Afridi played quick and blistering knocks to raise the team total to 334 runs.
Matt Henry was the only New Zealand bowler who created some disturbance for Pakistani batting by taking three wickets for 65 runs off 10 overs.
Chasing the target required the visitors to maintain the required run rate by keeping wickets intact but the Pakistani fierce bowling line rattled through the opponents’ batting line with Will Young and Tom Blundell losing their wickets within two overs after a sedate start with low strike rate.
New Zealand captain Tom Latham and Mark Chapman were the only batsmen who resisted Pakistan’s dominating bowling, but once they got out, their team lost consistent wickets before going all out at 232 runs.
Pakistani captain Babar Azam was named Player of the Match for his century, and he also became the quickest player to make 5,000 ODI runs in just 99 matches.
With the victory, Pakistan took the lead of 4-0 in the series and also reached the top ranking of the ODI with 113 points. Pakistan will have to win the fifth and final match of the series to consolidate its top position.
