Pakistan on Sunday managed to salvage their pride and survive a T20I series whitewash at the hands of New Zealand. The Men in Green found some joy after a string of losses as they registered a 42-run win against the Blackcaps at the Hagley Oval, Christchurch. They end the series losing 4-1.
Coming into the final T20I, the visitors had nothing to contest for except for their pride as they were on the brink of becoming the second-ever full-member nation to suffer a T20I series whitewash featuring five or more games. They have earlier been inflicted with clean sweeps but none equal to or more severe than what they could have been hit with today. Due to an improved outing with the ball, they managed to fall down further and take something out of their two tours to Australia and New Zealand.
The visitors made 134 runs at the venue as the Kiwis posed a big challenge on a surface that looked to be on the slower side. Tim Southee, Matt Henry, Lockie Ferguson and Ish Sodhi - all scalped two wickets a piece to reduce the Men in Green to 134/8 in 20 overs. Mohammad Rizwan turned out to be the highest run-scorer for Pakistan and then eventually in the match too as he made run-a-ball 38.
In reply, the hosts were shaky right from the start. Playing his first game in the series, Rachin Ravindra was cheaply sent back by Mohammad Nawaz for 1 before Zaman Khan removed the other opener to send the Kiwis to 30/2 after 5 overs. Tim Seifert tried to put up a fight as he spent the longest time in the middle, playing 30 balls but could only muster 19 runs in a challenging period.
Glenn Phillips also looked to get his eye in to the conditions but just when he decided to up the ante, the hard-hitting batter was dismissed by the Pakistan captain Shaheen in the 18th over with the Kiwis still needing 33. The Pakistan skipper wasted no time further as he took the final wicket on his next ball when he clean-bowled Lockie Ferguson to wrap up the series.
