Pakistan Cricket Team is displaced from its number one ODI Ranking in less than 48 hours. They needed to have a clean sweep over New Zealand to stay at number one.
By crushing New Zealand by 102 runs in the fourth ODI, Pakistan made history on Friday, becoming the No. 1 team in ODI cricket for the first time in their history. They surpassed both Australia and India to take the top rank.
They fell back to No. 3 though after a 47-run loss to New Zealand in the series finale on Sunday. Australia is in first place with 113 points, followed by India in second place with 113 points. As the competition for first place intensifies in the year of the ODI World Cup, Pakistan is in third place with 112 points.
Babar Azam said
Babar Azam considered the series victory and acknowledged that they did not get the desired result. The 5-match series was won by Pakistan 4-1.
“It was a brilliant series but didn’t finish it the way we wanted. We didn’t do well with the bat at the top and Agha and Iftikhar got a good partnership but we left too many runs for them,” he added.
On Sunday, New Zealand won the toss and elected to bat. In 49.3 overs, they amassed a challenging total of 299. After being put out to bat at the top of the order, Will Young scored 91 runs off 87 balls. The entire batting lineup made important contributions. Henry Nicholls (15) and Tom Blundell (59) were quickly bowled out, but skipper Tom Latham stood up and struck 59 off 58 balls.
As usual, Mark Chapman gave the innings a boost in the middle overs with 2 sixes and 5 boundaries, and Rachin Ravindra’s 20-ball cameo of 28 runs helped the total approach 300. Usama Mir and Shadab Khan each took two wickets, with Shaheen Afridi leading the Pakistani bowlers with three.
However, Pakistan’s batting collapsed as a result of early falls by their star players Mohammad Rizwan (9) and Babar Azam (1). Pakistan’s hopes were bolstered by Agha Salman (57) and Iftikhar Ahmed (72-ball 94), but the chase stalled as they left too much for the finish.
Iftikhar scored 94 runs at the end, was unbeaten, and hit 2 sixes and 8 boundaries, but it wasn’t enough to prevent New Zealand from winning the ODI series.
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