Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates: Inexperienced seamer Matt Henry grabbed 5-30 as New Zealand defeated Pakistan by 68 runs in the fifth one-day international on Friday to clinch the series 3-2.
Henry, 23, knocked off the top order and then accounted for the key wickets of Sarfraz Ahmed and captain Shahid Afridi to dismiss the home team for 207 in 43.3 overs with Haris Sohail (65) and Ahmed Shehzad (54) scoring fighting half centuries.
Captain Kane Williamson and Ross Taylor missed out on centuries and lifted New Zealand's total to 275-4 after the Black Caps won the toss and batted.
Williamson, who scored a century to level the series on Wednesday, made 97 with eight fours, and Taylor was unbeaten on 88 off 95 balls, hitting five fours and a six as both batsmen shared a 116-run third wicket stand.
"It was fantastic to learn from the Pakistan side and ultimately win such an evenly fought series," Williamson said. "The (Pakistan) middle-order has shown how powerful they are and to not let them get on top of us (today) has been brilliant."
Pakistan's batsmen struggled against the pace of Henry and Adam Milne, well backed up by some brilliant ground fielding, and Shehzad had hit the solitary boundary of the innings by the 25th over.
"The wickets of Ahmed Shehzad and Haris Sohail were crucial and their dismissals put us on the backfoot," Afridi said. "Bowlers bowled well, but we still gave away an extra 15-20 runs and later we lacked partnerships in batting."
Henry was lucky to get opening batsman Nasir Jamshed lbw off the fifth delivery for nought. The ball pitched outside the line of leg stump but Jamshed was involved in a long conversation with Shehzad over whether to go for the review or not and ran out of time.
Younis Khan gloved Henry's short pitched delivery down the leg side and Asad Shafiq was trapped leg before wicket by left-arm spinner Anton Devcich as Pakistan stuttered at 38-3.
Shehzad and Sohail featured in the innings' best partnership of 69 runs but New Zealand prevented them from scoring freely with tidy ground fielding.
Henry returned and had Shehzad caught at mid-on off a mistimed pull shot and Mitchell McClenaghan had Sohail clean bowled in the 39th over.
Henry then quickly wrapped up the innings by having Ahmed caught behind and Afridi was caught in the deep in fast bowler's successive overs.
Earlier, Williamson and Taylor revived New Zealand's innings with a century-stand off 138 balls.
Williamson top-edged a sweep off Afridi to miss out on successive centuries, but Taylor remained calm as New Zealand scored 85 runs in the last 10 overs.
Fast bowler Mohammad Irfan took 2-62, while Afridi bowled an economical 10 overs to finish with 1-33.
Irfan provided the early breakthrough in his second over when Martin Guptill (8) poked at a short-pitched delivery and edged it to Shafiq in the slips.
Dean Brownlie looked edgy against spin in scoring 34 off 51 balls, but managed to add 66 runs with Williamson before he fell leg before wicket to left-arm spinner Zulfiqar Babar, playing his first match of the series in place of Sohail Tanvir.
Williamson, at 24, became the youngest New Zealand skipper to complete 2,000 runs in limited-overs games when he reached 52 and was the second quickest Kiwi batsman to reach the milestone after Andrew Jones.
Williamson was denied successive centuries at the same venue when Afridi got him in the 43rd over.
