Cricket is the most popular sport in Pakistan and it gains added significance when there is home series at home ground. The latest back-to-back home cricket series i.e. against England and New Zealand are cases in point. The matches of both these series drew capacity crowd, who wanted nothing less than victory. However, they were extremely disappointed when Pakistan faced a whitewash in Test series against England at home.

But despite this pathetic show by the Green Shirts, the Pak cricket fans were attaching high hopes on Pak team against the Kiwis, who are in Pakistan.

Though Pakistan could not show a remarkable performance against Kiwis as well, but they fought back to some extent as at least they thwarted defeats in Tests against Kiwis.

New Zealand were very close to Win the two-Test  series, how on Friday last, it was really good to see Pakistan’s last pair Naseem Shah and Abrar Ahmed  who fought valiantly in fading light on Friday to dash the hopes of visiting team to ground. Both Naseem and Abrar had to face 38 balls and it was seemingly difficult to survive this spell, but the duo fought valiantly and remained in the crease much to the rescue of their team.

The duo played really well as New Zealand was very close to victory in this Test match on Friday.  Credit also goes to Sarfraz Ahmed who scored a brilliant and magnificent century and made it impossible for the New Zealand to become victorious on Friday last. His fighting century together with good batting stand by last pair Naseem and Abrar brought the second Test to a sensational draw at National Stadium Karachi (NSK).

The recalled Sarfraz Ahmed had also well in the first test and had scored a half-century to take the team to a reasonable score of 317-5 on the opening day of the first Test against Kiwis at NSK.

Sarfraz’s 118 in the second Test was his best and also his first Test match century since 2014. In fact, his presence in this series has made a difference as he was magnificent throughout the entire series.

His good show also made Southee to tell reporters after the draw in the second Test at NSK with New Zealand one-wicket away from clinching the victory in the series that it was due to Sarfraz good show that the Kiwis could not win the Test series.

Sarfraz together with Babar Azam was instrumental in team’s recovery in first Test match as well. As the duo took the team from 110-4 during a 196-run fifth wicket stand, it seemed they are going to salvage the team.

Sarfraz also played really well  as he has help lifted the Green Shirts  bit from the recent 3-0  whitewash, which was the first at home ground, at the hands of England team.

Sarfraz performance in the entire series is evident from his scores of 86, 53, 78 and 118 due to which he was also named  the man-of-the-match and man-of-the-series awards.

Overall, he scored over three hundred runs in the two Test series which is a good show by any standard.

Babar Azam had also played well in the first test and with a magnificent century Babar Azam reached another milestone of magnificent 1,170 runs in only nine Test encounters during the current year which is  the highest run maker in Tests this year so far.

Babar has also surpassed Mohammad Yousuf’s aggregate of 2,435 in 2006 in all formats of the game.

It was really difficult to force the Kiwis to a draw as the tourists were upbeat ahead of the series and they were also played well on our wicket. They featuring in their first Test series in our country since 2002 and they were fully focused on series win but thank God, the good show by Babar Azam, Sarfraz and other individual players forced them to a sensational draw.

The ending of the two match Test series against New Zealand in a draw is a good show by Pakistan team, which was fresh from series whitewash against England.

Now all eyes are set on the three match ODI series which begins today and one hopes that Green Shirt will play with fighting spirit to make a different on home ground and cheer the home crowds which want nothing less than victory.

Though the touring team has an edge over Pakistan as they are currently standing at second place in the ICC ranking for the ODI as compared to Pakistan which is standing at fourth place in the ODI rankings, but Pakistan can take the benefit of home grounds and home crowd.

As far as their record in head-to=head ODI contests is concerned, the two have featured in as many as 107 ODIs , out of which the touring side has won fourth eight encounters while Pakistan won fifty five, so over Pakistan’s show against Kiwis in the ODI is better.

Published in The Daily National Courier, January, 09 2023

Like Business on Facebook, follow @DailyNCourier on Twitter to stay informed and join in the conversation.