A withering spell by Tim Southee and blistering inning from Colin Dee Grandhomme saw New Zealand destroy Pakistan by 5 wickets in the fourth one-day international to comfortably underlay the clean sheet in the series.
Southee rocked Pakistan with two wickets in consecutive two overs to take out the cream of their top order on his way to figures of three for 44.
Pakistan, after winning toss, decided to bat first and got restricted in the score of 262 runs with the loss of 8 wickets in stipulated 50 overs. Fakhar Zaman looked solid in the top order but was helpless with continuous wickets from another end. Zaman scored 54 runs off 75 balls before getting bowled off Santner’s bowling. Pakistan were at 5 for 130 in 32.2 overs but they propelled their score to 262 runs with some sensible batting from middle-lower order batsmen. Mohammad Hafeez scored 81 runs off 80 balls which included 5 fours and 4 sixes. Haris Sohail and Sarfraz Ahmed also scored 50 and 51 runs respectively.
In reply, New Zealand chased it down quite comfortably with 25 balls remaining. Colin Munro fired in top order and Colin De Grandhomme blistering innings down the order made the chase comfortable for the host. Colin Munro scored 56 runs off 42 balls. Later, 109 runs stand between Colin De Grandhomme and Henry Nicholls helped kiwis to crossed the rope. De Grandhomme scored unbeaten 74 runs from 40 balls with the help of 7 fours and 5 sixes whereas Henry Nicholls scored unbeaten 52 runs off 70 balls.
For Pakistan, Shadab Khan picked up 3 wickets. He sent back Martin Guptil, Colin Munro and Tom Latham to kept Pakistan’s hope alive. De Grandhomme was declared as Man of the match of his match winning innings.
Both side will meet up each other on 18 January in Wellington.
