Guptill, Henry lead New Zealand to series sweep

Pakistan’s top-order batting stuttered and stumbled again and a good performance from the bowlers – with ball and bat – went in vain as the home side ran out 15-run victors in the fifth and final One-Day International at Wellington’s Basin Reserve on Friday. The result gave Kane Williamson’s men a 5-0 series sweep.

After winning the toss and batting first, New Zealand had Martin Guptill’s 13th ODI century to thank for taking them to a decent score, and then it was over to the bowlers, led by Matt Henry, to stop Pakistan at 256, the chase getting as close to the target as it did because of a good middle-order partnership and some enterprising batting by the tailenders.

Pakistan arrived in New Zealand high on hope, on a nine-match winning streak, which included their ICC Champions Trophy triumph and a 5-0 whitewash of Sri Lanka at ‘home’ in the United Arab Emirates. Since arriving in New Zealand, though, it’s been one poor show after the other as they lost by 61 runs, eight wickets, 183 runs and five wickets before the latest reversal.

It’s the batting that has led Pakistan down more often than not. In the final ODI, it was Henry who made sure Pakistan didn’t have a good start, picking up the first three wickets by the eighth over to leave the scoreboard at 31 for 3.

Henry, who replaced Trent Boult, sent back Umar Amin, himself a replacement for the injured and low-on-runs Shoaib Malik, Fakhar Zaman and Babar Azam.

Lockie Ferguson and Colin de Grandhomme struck soon after to dismiss Mohammad Hafeez and Sarfraz Ahmed, the Pakistan captain, to reduce visiting side to 57 for 5 before there was finally some resistance, Haris Sohail and Shadab Khan picking up the pieces with a 105-run alliance for the sixth wicket.

Though the going wasn’t at a pace frenetic enough to worry New Zealand too much, they needed a wicket and Mitchell Santner provided them two. He first tempted Sohail with one that the batsman lofted to Henry at long-on. Sohail’s 63 came off 87 balls and included five fours. That made it 162 for 6, and Santner then sent back Shadab caught at short third man for a 77-ball 54, with five fours.

That Pakistan got from that position – 171 for 7 in the 40th over – to 256 was entirely because of the fight shown by Faheem Ashraf, Aamer Yamin and Mohammad Nawaz. Ashraf first hit one four and two sixes in a 15-ball 23, Yamin chipped in with an unbeaten 27-ball 32 with three fours and a six, and Nawaz scored 23 in 12 balls with three fours and a six to keep the flagging Pakistan hopes of a consolation win going. In the end, though, with Henry picking up his fourth wicket to finish with 4 for 53, it wasn’t good enough.

Earlier, Guptill’s 126-ball 100 shored up a somewhat iffy New Zealand batting performance, which couldn’t capitalise on the absence of Hasan Ali and Mohammad Amir. While Hasan sat out with a groin strain, Amir was dropped, and they were replaced by Yamin, the pacer, and Nawaz, the left-arm spinner.

Guptill and Colin Munro gave New Zealand an excellent start, Munro his usual belligerent self in hitting a 24-ball 34 with seven fours in a stand of 52 in just under six overs before Rumman Raees sent him back.

New Zealand, however, got more partnerships to keep the innings on track. First, Guptill and Kane Williamson (22 in 36 balls) added 49 for the second wicket, then Ross Taylor joined the opening batsman for 112 runs for the third wicket.

Guptill didn’t look like he was in any sort of hurry as he kept the scoreboard ticking over, and got a life on 72 when Ashraf missed an excellent opportunity to run him out. Guptill played one away in the direction of the covers and called for a run but was sent back. He slipped and fell mid-pitch but Ashraf, who could have easily run to the wickets with the ball, chose to have a shy and missed. That gave Guptill enough time to crawl back to the crease, and he made Pakistan pay by bringing up his century soon after.

But the late surge New Zealand would have hoped for didn’t materialise. It started with Guptill’s wicket, Raees getting Guptill to toe-end one to Hafeez at long-off to fall for a 126-ball 100, with ten fours and a six.

Ashraf then sent back Taylor for 59, inclusive of three boundaries, and though de Grandhomme scored 29 not out in just 21 balls, wickets fell far too frequently at the other end. Raees finished with 3 for 67 and Ashraf 2 for 49, and it was only the unbroken 27-run for the eighth wicket between de Grandhomme and Tim Southee (14 not out in 11 balls) that lifted New Zealand.

The two teams next play a series of three Twenty20 Internationals, with the first game slotted for Wellington’s Westpac Stadium on January 22.