New Zealand, who played some quality cricket to win the T20 series, have continued their impressive form in the ODI series, defeating Pakistan in first one-dayer at Basin Reserve in Wellington by 70 runs. With this New Zealand have taken a 1-0 lead in the three-match ODI series.
New Zealand, who were asked to bat first by Pakistan, did not enjoy a great start as they lost wickets at regular intervals. The home team, who to a great extent depend on opener Martin Guptill, received a major setback after losing his wicket for 23 runs on the board in the fifth over.
After Guptill's dismissal, other New Zealand batsmen followed suit. At one point of time, the Black Caps were in a dismal situation, and were tottering at 99 runs for the loss of six wickets in the 23rd over of the game.
However, the lower order batsmen played an important role with the bat .Mitchell Santer and Matt Henry scored 48 runs each to stabilise the innings. A late flourish from Mitchell McClenaghan, who scored a 18-ball 31, before retiring hurt, helped New Zealand reach a total of 280 runs.
The target was always going to be challenging for Pakistan, who have not been impressive in New Zealand of late.
With bowlers such as Henry and Trent Boult, the Pakistan openers – Azhar Ali and Ahmed Shehzad -- needed to provide a solid platform, which they could not as both the batsmen were back in the hut in the first 11 overs with the score reading 37 runs.
Mohammad Hafeez and Babar Azam played a good knock to bring Pakistan in a decent position as they scored 42 and 62 runs respectively, which was not enough. One of them had to carry the bat right through the innings to defeat New Zealand. Sarfaraz Ahmed played his bit with the bat, scoring a 29-ball 30, but it was not adequate as the lower order crumbled.
Pakistan lost their last four wickets for five runs. They were all out for 210 runs. Trent Boult was the pick of the bowler for New Zealand, and he picked up four wickets to help New Zealand win the 1st ODI.
