Pakistan vs. New Zealand, 2nd ODI, 2014: Highlights, Scorecard and Report

New Zealand (255/6) levelled the ODI series against Pakistan (252) at 1-1 on Friday, comfortably winning their second match by four wickets. Early struggles doomed Pakistan in their innings, and the team's bowlers couldn't break up two pivotal partnerships that ultimately gave the Black Caps the win.

Pakistan won the toss and elected to bat first, but they got off to a terrible start, as Ahmed Shehzad was bowled on the very first delivery he faced, via ESPN Cricinfo:

Younis Khan and Asad Shafiq also lost their wickets early, but Mohammad Hafeez picked up the slack with 76 runs from 92 balls, including 10 boundaries.

			Runs	Minutes	Balls	4s	6s
Bowler	Overs	Maidens	Runs	Wickets
Hafeez	c Latham	b Henry	76	149	92	9	1
Shehzad	c Ronchi	b Henry	0	3	5	0	0
Younus Khan	c Taylor	b McClenaghan	6	8	6	1	0
Shafiq		b Henry	1	8	5	0	0
Sohail	c Taylor	b Anderson	33	66	45	2	1
Misbah-ul-Haq	c Ronchi	b Henry	47	70	65	2	2
Sarfraz Ahmed	c Latham	b McClenaghan	23	64	31	0	0
Shahid Afridi	c Vettori	b Milne	27	17	14	1	3
Riaz	c Taylor	b Milne	14	16	19	1	0
Tanvir	lbw	b McClenaghan	14	13	10	2	0
Irfan	not out		0		0	0	0
Extras	1nb 9w 0b 1lb	11		Extras	1nb 9w 0b 1lb
Total	all out (48.3 ovs)	252		Total	all out (48.3 ovs)
Henry	10.0	0	45	4
McClenaghan	9.3	0	56	3
Milne	10.0	0	53	2
Vettori	10.0	0	48	0
Devcich	2.0	0	14	0
Anderson	7.0	0	35	1

New Zealand's seam bowlers kept a tight lid on the action, and Matt Henry shone in particular, taking four wickets and surrendering just 45 runs in 10 overs. Haris Sohail (33) and Misbah-ul-Haq (47) put together a strong stand for Pakistan, however, giving the winners of the first ODI a fighting chance.

Shahid Afridi added 27 more runs from just 14 deliveries, and Pakistan were 252 all out after the first innings. ESPN Cricinfo wondered if that would be enough:

Dean Brownlie and Anton Devcich gave the Black Caps exactly the kind of start they were hoping for, as the opening duo contributed 105 runs between them. Kane Williamson also did his part, displaying a lot of patience as he went for his sixth half-century in his last seven innings, via Cricbuzz:

The Black Caps' momentum seemed to slow down when Ross Taylor and Tom Latham were dismissed in quick succession, but Corey Anderson's 10 from 10 put the train back on the wheels.

		Runs	Runs	Minutes	Balls	4s	6s
Bowler	Overs	Maidens	Runs	Wickets
Brownlie		b Shahid Afridi	47	58	61	8	0
Devcich	run out (Hafeez)		58	85	66	8	0
Williamson	not out		70	125	91	7	0
Taylor	c Sarfraz Ahmed	b Sohail	2	6	3	0	0
Latham	c Tanvir	b Sohail	3	17	7	0	0
Anderson		b Sohail	10	9	10	0	1
Ronchi	c Tanvir	b Shahid Afridi	36	42	32	6	0
Vettori	not out		13	16	8	2	0
Extras	2nb 8w 0b 6lb	16		Extras	2nb 8w 0b 6lb
Total	for 6 (46.0 ovs)	255
Tanvir	6.0	0	30	0
Irfan	10.0	0	50	0
Riaz	9.0	0	58	0
Shahid Afridi	10.0	0	47	2
Sohail	9.0	0	48	3
Shehzad	1.0	0	7	0
Shafiq	1.0	0	9	0

Luke Ronchi found the boundary with relative ease in his partnership with Williamson, scoring 36 from 32 before a phenomenal catch from Sohail Tanvir brought his afternoon to a close, via the team's official Twitter feed:

Daniel Vettori stepped in and picked up right where Ronchi had left off, scoring 10 on the first four balls he faced. Pakistan's bowlers were in desperation mode now, failing to stop the new duo of Vettori and Williamson from pouring in the runs.

Vettori did the final honours with a sliced boundary. Sohail wanted a review as he claimed it was leg-before wicket, but the review showed nothing to change the umpires mind. As shared by the ICC's official Twitter feed, it marked New Zealand's first ODI win over Pakistan at Sharjah:

Afridi made no excuses after the match, acknowledging the absence of some of his top spinners due to injury puts more pressure on the batting, and the team didn't come through on Friday. As reported by ESPN Cricinfo, he said:

"

We missed our chance in our batting. We lost three wickets early, we should have crossed 280. We didn't bowl consistently either when we needed wickets. We can't think of the ones who are injured, we have to manage with what we have and produce results with them.

"

The Black Caps' performance was one of the best their ODI team has put together in 2014, with their seam bowlers controlling the pace early and keeping Pakistan's explosive batsmen in check. New Zealand know they can score runs in a hurry—not giving them up in bunches will be key at the upcoming World Cup.

The two squads will play their third ODI in the five-match series on Sunday.

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