RAWALPINDI; April 27,2023: Pakistan defeated New Zealand by 5 wickets in the first ODI to take a 1-0 lead in the five-match series.
The first ODI of the series was played at the Pindi Cricket Stadium in which the national team captain Babar Azam won the toss and invited New Zealand to bat first.
New Zealand scored 288 runs for the loss of 7 wickets in the allotted 50 overs, Will Young and Daryl Mitchell played a brilliant batting performance, Daryl Mitchell played a brilliant innings of 113 runs while Will Young also scored 86 runs.
On behalf of Pakistan, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Naseem Shah and Haris Rauf dismissed two players each while one wicket went to Shadab Khan. Chasing the target set by New Zealand, Pakistan opened the innings with Fakhar Zaman and Imamul Haq and both players gave their team a brilliant start of 124 runs.
Imam-ul-Haq was dismissed for 60 runs while captain Babar Azam also played an innings of 49 runs, Shan Masood scored one and Agha Salman was dismissed for 7 runs. Muhammad Rizwan played an unbeaten innings of 42 runs while Muhammad Nawaz remained unbeaten by scoring 8 runs.
Previously, in the first one-day match of the series, New Zealand set a target of 289 runs to Pakistan for victory in the first one-day match thanks to Daryl Mitchell’s century and Will Young’s excellent batting. In the first one-day match, Pakistan’s captain Babar Azam won the toss and invited New Zealand to bat. When New Zealand opened the innings, the openers gave their team a good start of 48 runs, but at this stage, Haris Rauf gave Pakistan their first victory, Chad Bose’s 18 runs. The innings ended. Daryl Mitchell came in to support Will Young at this stage and the duo put on a fine display of 102 runs for the second wicket.
Young was on his way to a century when Shadab Khan completed the batsman’s work with 86 runs on a total of 150, his innings including eight fours and two sixes.
Daryl Mitchell continued his good game from the second end and added 72 runs along with captain Tom Latham, in which Latham’s contribution was only 20 runs. On this occasion, Kiwi captain Shaheen Shah Afridi became the wicket, while Mark Chapman also got only 15 runs. Can only score runs.
Darryl Mitchell scored his first century in Pakistan and second century of his ODI career in a brilliant performance.
The Kiwi batsman returned to the pavilion after scoring a career-high 113 runs, studded with 11 fours and a six.
In the final overs, Pakistani bowlers, especially Naseem Shah, bowled brilliantly, due to which the visiting batsmen could not bat openly and scored 288 runs for the loss of 7 wickets in the allotted overs.
On behalf of Pakistan, Naseem Shah took 2 wickets giving only 29 runs in the quota of 10 overs while Shaheen and Haris also managed to take two wickets each.
Before the match, the Pakistani team suffered a big blow and Haris Sohail was out of the match due to a shoulder injury.
It should be remembered that before the ODI series, the T20 series was played between the two teams, in which the visiting team made a brilliant comeback to level the series 2-2 after losing the first two matches.
Both the teams for the match consist of these players.
Pakistan: Babar Azam (captain), Fakhar Zaman, Imamul Haq, Muhammad Rizwan, Shan Masood, Salman Ali Agha, Shadab Khan, Muhammad Nawaz, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Haris Rauf and Naseem Shah.
New Zealand: Tom Latham (capt), Chad Bowes, Willie Young, Daryl Mitchell, Mark Chapman, Henry Nicholls, Richan Ravindra, Adam Milne, Ash Sodhi, Matt Henry and Blair Tickner.
Pakistan Playing XI
Pakistan cricket team is captained by Babar Azam, while the playing XI includes Imam-ul-Haq, Fakhrzaman, Shan Masood, Muhammad Rizwan, Agha Salman, Muhammad Nawaz, Shadab Khan, Shaheen Afridi, Naseem Shah and Haris Rauf.
6 specialist players have been included in Pakistan team for ODI squad.