On a day of rare failure by Pakistan’s top order, the middle-order batsmen got their chance to be the heroes. Iftikhar Ahmed raised that hope in his first fifty. However, even his career-best innings was not enough. New Zealand saved themselves from being whitewashed with an impressive win in a combined effort.

The visitors won the fifth and final ODI in Karachi by 47 runs. Pakistan won the series 4-1. New Zealand stopped Babar Azam’s team for 252 runs with a target of 300 runs. After this loss, Pakistan dropped from the top of the ICC ODI rankings after one match.

Iftikhar, hoping for his first century in international cricket, remained unbeaten on 94 runs. His 72-ball innings hit two sixes and eight fours. This middle-order batsman has to return with a big disappointment before touching three figures due to lack of a partner.
New Zealand got off to a good start after winning the toss at the Karachi National Stadium. However, opener Tom Blundell and Henry Nicholls, who dropped to three, could not increase the innings.

Will Young and Tom Latham pulled the team with a pair of 74 runs for the third wicket. Shadab Khan broke the headache-causing pair by returning the opener who raised the possibility of a century.

Young scored 87 runs off 91 balls with two sixes and eight fours. Usama Mir stopped Latham, who played almost in a rhythm from the start. The keeper-batsman who led New Zealand in this series scored 59 runs off 58 balls with five fours. Pacer Mark Chapman was on his way to a fifty. Pakistan stopped him with a cut behind the review. Chapman played a stormy innings of 43 runs off 33 balls with five fours and two sixes.

Cole McConchie and Rachin Ravindra played two effective cameo innings. But at the very end, the run rate drops. Losing the last four wickets for 16 runs, New Zealand’s innings ended with 3 balls remaining. Pakistan started cautiously in the run chase. Shan Masood could not settle after taking a lot of time. The opener scored 7 runs off 20 balls when Matt Henry’s delivery was pulled onto the stumps.
Babar failed in his 100th ODI. Pakistan’s captain scored 1 run in 5 balls. The stylish batsman was caught at backward point by Henry Shipley.

Mohammad Rizwan could not handle the danger of the team. Fakhar Zaman, who was at the crease for a long time, scored 33 runs off 64 balls in an unnatural slow batting. Losing the first four batsmen for 66 runs in the 19th over, there was a fear of a big loss in front of Pakistan. Agha Salman and Iftikhar’s batsmen managed the shock.

Shipley broke the pair of 97 runs back to Salman. The spinning all-rounder scored 57 runs off 57 balls. After that, Iftikhar played almost alone. Shadab and Usama couldn’t give him much company. Shaheen Shah Afridi returns for zero runs. Pakistan’s innings ended with 23 balls remaining when Haris Rauf was run out trying to take two runs off the first ball of the 47th over.

Summary Score:
New Zealand: 299 in 49.3 overs (Young 87, Blundell 15, Nicholls 23, Latham 59, Chapman 43, McConkey 26, Ravindra 28, Milne 4, Shipley 3, Henry 4*, Sodhi 2; Afridi 10-0-46 3, Rauf 8.3-0-45-1, Wasim 8.3-1-24-1, Usama 8-0-53-2, Salman 8-0-60-0, Shadab 9-0-67-2 )
Pakistan: 252 in 46.1 overs (Fakhar 33, Masood 7, Babar 1, Rizwan 9, Salman 57, Iftikhar 94*, Shadab 14, Usama 20, Afrid 0, Wasim 6, Rauf 1; Milne 8-0-34-1, Henry 8.1-1-47-1, Shipley 9-1-34-3, Sodhi 10-0-60-1, Rabindra 10-0-65-3, McConkey 1-0-7-0)

• Result: New Zealand won by 47 runs
• Series: Pakistan won the 5-match series by a margin of 4-1
• Man of the Match: Henry Shipley
• Man of the Series: Fakhar Zaman