Sharjah, United Arab Emirates: Opening batsman Ahmed Shehzad smashed a century and stand-in captain Shahid Afridi made a rampant 55 as Pakistan posted a huge 364-7 against New Zealand in the third one-day international on Sunday.
Shehzad hit 113 off 120 balls and Afridi blasted six fours and three sixes in his 26-ball knock against the wayward New Zealand fast bowlers after their captain Kane Williamson lost his third successive toss of the series.
Shehzad featured in three half-century stands and blazed a dozen boundaries and two sixes before Afridi, who will be leading Pakistan in the remaining three matches after Misbah-ul-Haq was ruled out due to hamstring injury, took charge to post his second 50 of the series and lifted Pakistan to its third highest limited-overs total.
Matt Henry took 3-69 on his 23rd birthday and Corey Anderson leaked 22 runs in the last over of the innings to finish with 1-96 as New Zealand conceded 37 boundaries and 11 sixes.
Shehzad and Mohammad Hafeez provided Pakistan with a breezy opening stand of 63 runs off 47 balls with both hitting fast bowler Mitchell McClenaghan for three successive boundaries in his second and third overs.
Anderson had Hafeez caught behind in the first over before Shehzad added 70 runs with Younis Khan (35) and another 77 runs with Asad Shafiq (23).
Shehzad pulled, cut and drove with lot of power and got a lucky escape when on 92 wicketkeeper Luke Ronchi couldn't grab a low catch off Anderson.
Shehzad completed his sixth ODI century and second against New Zealand off 112 balls before mistiming a pull shot off Henry, who got Shafiq clean bowled off the next delivery.
Afridi promoted himself ahead of Umar Akmal and blazed 89 runs for the fifth wicket stand with Haris Sohail (39) off only 46 balls before both gave Williamson catches while looking for quick runs.
Sarfraz Ahmed hammered 30 off 14 balls and Sohail Tanvir lofted two sixes late in the innings to give Pakistan bowlers a strong total to defend.
New Zealand continued with its rotation policy ahead of the World Cup in two months, making three changes despite winning the second match to level the series 1-1.
Opening batsman Martin Guptill, allrounder James Neesham and offspinner Natham McCullum replace fast bowler Adam Milne, Daniel Vettori and Dean Brownlie.
