Pakistan vs. New Zealand, 5th ODI, 2014: Highlights, Scorecard, Report

New Zealand (275/4) won the fifth and final ODI in their series against Pakistan (207) by 68 runs on Friday in Abu Dhabi, winning the close and hard-fought series 3-2.

The Black Caps defended a relatively low score in the fourth ODI and utilised a similar strategy on Friday, falling 24 runs short of their total on Wednesday. The pitch in Abu Dhabi again played quite slow, and a late flurry in the final 10 overs gave New Zealand a score they felt comfortable defending.

			Runs	Minutes	Balls	4s	6s
Bowler	Overs	Maidens	Runs	Wickets
Guptill	c Shafiq	b Irfan	8	9	9	1	0
Brownlie	lbw	b Zulfiqar Babar	34	78	51	3	0
Williamson	c Sarfraz Ahmed	b Shahid Afridi	97	153	119	8	0
Taylor	not out		88	122	95	5	1
Ronchi	c Shahid Afridi	b Irfan	16	13	12	1	1
Latham	not out		22	16	14	4	0
Extras	0nb 5w 0b 5lb	10		Extras	0nb 5w 0b 5lb	10
Total	for 4 (50.0 ovs)	275		Total	for 4 (50.0 ovs)	275
Irfan	10.0	0	62	2
Zulfiqar Babar	10.0	0	61	1
Shahid Afridi	10.0	0	33	1
Anwar Ali	10.0	0	62	0
Sohail	8.0	0	38	0
Shehzad	2.0	0	14	0

Captain Kane Williamson was caught just three runs shy of a century, continuing his excellent form throughout this series. His 97 runs came from 119 balls, as he hit eight fours, per ICC's official Twitter feed:

According to Cricket Record, he came agonizingly close to becoming the first Black Caps captain to hit two centuries in the same bilateral ODI series:

Shahid Afridi was once again strong with the ball, surrendering just 33 runs in 10 innings while taking Williamson's wicket, but the rest of Pakistan's bowlers struggled. Zulfiqar Babar was brought in to replace medium-pacer Sohail Tanvir, and the spinner gave 61 runs in his ten overs.

Mohammad Irfan did even worse, with 62 in 10, although he did grab two wickets. Pakistan's bowling has been hit hard by the suspension of Mohammad Hafeez, as evidenced by the heavy workload of players like Haris Sohail, via ESPN Cricinfo:

Ross Taylor upped the tempo toward the end of New Zealand's innings, scoring 88 runs from 124 as the Black Caps added 13 more runs in the final over to set the target at 275.

The team's official Twitter feed liked the total:

New Zealand started well with the ball, dismissing Mohammad Irfan for a  duck and allowing Younis Khan and Asad Shafiq just 19 runs between them. The situation looked dire for Pakistan, but Ahmed Shehzad and Haris Sohail soon found a solid partnership, increasing the team's net run rate tremendously in the middle overs.

The Black Caps' Twitter feed saw their confidence growing:

Shehzad would finish with 54 from 71 before being caught by Williamson, while Sohail added 65 from 104. With five wickets in hand and 78 balls left to bowl, Pakistan needed 120 runs to win the series.

		Runs	Runs	Minutes	Balls	4s	6s
Bowler	Overs	Maidens	Runs	Wickets
Jamshed	lbw	b Henry	0		5	0	0
Shehzad	c Williamson	b Henry	54	107	81	2	0
Younus Khan	c Ronchi	b Henry	12	32	25	0	0
Shafiq	lbw	b Devcich	7	14	13	0	0
Sohail		b McClenaghan	65	102	74	5	1
U Akmal	c Guptill	b N McCullum	6	9	12	0	0
Sarfraz Ahmed	c Ronchi	b Henry	26	40	24	2	0
Shahid Afridi	c Taylor	b Henry	13	20	9	2	0
Anwar Ali	st Ronchi	b N McCullum	18	10	14	3	0
Zulfiqar Babar		b Milne	2	7	3	0	0
Irfan	not out		0	2	1	0	0
Extras	0nb 1w 1b 2lb	4
Total	all out (43.3 ovs)	207
Henry	9.0	1	30	5
Milne	6.3	0	30	1
McClenaghan	8.0	0	45	1
Devcich	6.0	0	22	1
Williamson	5.0	0	18	0
N McCullum	9.0	0	59	2

That's when Matt Henry stepped up. The 23-year-old fast bowler has enjoyed a tremendous series, and he wrapped things up by grabbing five wickets on Friday, including Shehzad's and Shahid Afridi's. The crowd started to depart as soon as the last was caught, as the match truly appeared to be over.

For cricket statistician Michael Wagener, Henry may have been the man of the series:

Adam Milne took Babar's wicket for the final out in emphatic fashion, as the Black Caps celebrated the series win over Pakistan.

Afridi congratulated New Zealand on a great series, before explaining to ESPN Cricinfo he didn't want to use the fact his team was looking for the right partnerships and fielding positions as an excuse:

"

There were small things that we need to cover before the World Cup—fielding and partnerships.

[Losing the deciding game in a series] This is not an excuse. If you think that you won't win, you won't win. Overall, everyone played very well. Some of the things, the management knows what mistakes we made. So we have to improve on them.

[Turning points] Bowlers bowled well but we still gave away 15-20 runs more. Partnerships we lacked. Ahmed Shehzad's wicket was crucial and Haris Sohail's. He was playing well. Their dismissals put us on the back foot.

"

While it's debatable whether or not the better team won the series, there's no denying New Zealand simply played the slower pitch in Abu Dhabi better in the final ODIs. With several senior players missing and a young group of bowlers, the Black Caps impressed against a veteran team and look like real contenders going into next year's World Cup. 

Bowling remains a problem for Pakistan, and while their explosive group of batsmen did well in the first and third match of the series, they can't do all of the work on a slower pitch.

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