Islamabad: Fakhar Zaman's blazing 180 off 144 balls guided Pakistan to a dominant seven-wicket victory with ten balls remaining in a riveting second ODI match between Pakistan and New Zealand.

Former chairman PCB and cricketer, Ramiz Raja, applauded Fakhar's innings; however, shed some light on the area he needs improvement. "Fakhar needs to work on short-pitch bowling because he will have to encounter short-pitch bowling on spicy pitches. It seems like he tried for the pull shot but couldn't execute it perfectly. I have observed many times in his career that the ball hits his helmet. That's the area where he needs to work positively - either he skips that particular delivery or practice pull shot as much as possible. Having said that, Fakhar would never be hounded in the sub-continent at least and can be trusted blindly on Asian pitches," Ramiz said on YouTube channel. Raja also praised Pakistan's remarkable death bowling and suggested New Zealand to devise new plans to challenge Pakistan's dominant death bowling side. "New Zealand should rethink and understand that if they want to claim a win, particularly in the subcontinent, then they need to score more than 337. Secondly, they shouldn't hold the wickets till the end and then wait to accelerate the score further. Keeping wickets in hand doesn't matter because when the opponent is as strong as Pakistan, who is a force to reckon with in death bowling. Kiwis need to generate more pace and re-strategize in order to claim a victory", he further added. Haris Rauf's scorching spell, which claimed four key wickets in his ten overs, proved too much for New Zealand's batting order. Kiwis set a target of 337, which was comfortably chased by Pakistan batters.

Published in The Daily National Courier, May, 01 2023

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