Captain Kane Williamson smashed his sixth century in the last seven limited-overs matches and fast bowler Matt Henry grabbed 4 for 45 as New Zealand defeated Pakistan by four wickets in the second ODI to level the five-match series 1-1 on Friday.
Williamson held the innings together with an unbeaten 70 off 91 balls, hitting seven fours as New Zealand reached 255 for 6 with four overs to spare for their maiden victory against Pakistan in 11 ODIs at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium.
Henry’s four-wicket haul had earlier dismissed Pakistan for 252 with Mohammad Hafeez top-scoring with 76 and captain Misbah-ul-Haq making 47 before they also fell in Henry’s return spell. Misbah had to hand the captaincy to Shahid Afridi as he pulled his left hamstring early in New Zealand’s run-chase while chasing the ball to the boundary and didn’t take the field for the rest of the match.
Anton Devcich (58) and Dean Brownlie (47) laid a solid foundation of 103-run opening stand off 110 balls and later Williamson stood firm despite Pakistan hitting back briefly through left-arm spinner Haris Sohail’s 3 for 48. Brownlie hit eight fours that included three successive boundaries off left-arm fast bowler Wahab Riaz’s one over before Afridi broke through in the 19th over when he had Brownlie clean bowled.
Devcich was run out in a mix-up with Williamson and Sohail fulfilled the fifth bowler’s spot due to a suspension on Hafeez by claiming the wickets of Tom Latham, Ross Taylor and Corey Anderson in quick succession to reduce New Zealand to 167 for 5.
Luke Ronchi and Williamson eeked out a 58-run stand and brought New Zealand close to victory before Ronchi was smartly caught by Sohail Tanvir in Afridi’s return spell. However, Williamson kept his cool with Daneil Vettori as both teams go into third game of the five-match series at the same venue on Sunday with the series tied 1-1.
Earlier, after winning the toss electing to bat first, Pakistan slipped to 20 for 3 with Henry striking twice in his first three overs. Hafeez featured in two productive stands, adding 77 runs with Haris Sohail (33), and 66 with Misbah, but was dismissed by Henry just before the second batting powerplay.
Mitchell McClenaghan got the key wicket of Younis Khan, and ended Pakistan’s innings in the 49th over with two wickets in three balls to finish with 3 for 56. Henry had opening batsman Ahmed Shehzad caught behind for a duck in the first over, and clean bowled Asad Shafiq between bat and pad as the batsman tried to flick the fast bowler.
In between Henry’s strikes, McClenaghan bowled an eventful second over when he had Khan lbw for a duck, only to see the batsman recalled by the umpire because the fast bowler bowled a no-ball. Khan lasted only three more deliveries before edging McClenaghan to first slip, giving Taylor one of his three catches. Hafeez steadied the innings with Sohail, who scored a match-winning half century in the first ODI. Then Sohail pulled Anderson’s short-pitched delivery straight to Taylor at midwicket at 97-4.
Hafeez hit nine fours and a six in his 92-ball knock, until Henry returned and had him caught in the deep at 163-5, and Misbah was caught behind down the leg side two overs later after hitting two fours and two sixes. Afridi briefly looked threatening in scoring 27 off 14 balls. He hoisted Adam Milne for two successive sixes but his skied his third attempt to Daniel Vettori at mid off, wasting his wicket with more than nine overs left, at 209-7. New Zealand did well in the last 10 overs in allowing Pakistan only 55 runs, before McClenaghan, one of the three changes to the team, finished off the innings.
