New Zealand vs Pakistan, 3rd ODI 2018: Who Said What

New Zealand have been clinical with their performances over the past few months. They decimated the Windies earlier and carried their rich vein of form to the ongoing One-Day International series against Pakistan. After a couple of thumping victories in Wellington and Nelson, the Kiwis wished to bag the series. On the other hand, Pakistan wanted a win to keep their hopes alive in the series.

However, the visitors capitulated alarmingly and slumped to a humiliating defeat by 183 runs in the third game in Dunedin. After winning the toss, Kane Williamson & Co. elected to bat first. They didn’t race away but kept the scoreboard ticking. Colin Munro perished early, but the likes of Martin Guptill, Kane Williamson and Ross Taylor played mature knocks to get the hosts up to a respectable score of 257.

Left-arm pacer Rumman Raees and Hasan Ali, the top-ranked bowler in ODIs, snared three wickets each. The target wasn’t daunting by any stretch of the imagination. However, Pakistan made a meal of the chase as wickets went down like a pack of cards. At one stage, with the score at 32/8 in 18.1 overs, they were in danger of recording the lowest score in ODIs.

Trent Boult ripped the heart out of the top-order and left the Men in Green in tatters after the first four overs. Boult eventually finished with a spell of 7.2-1-17-5. Only three batsmen could get into double figures and quite embarrassingly, Rumman Raees, the number 11 batsman, top-scored with 16 runs off 14 balls. At no point of the chase did Pakistan look like posing a threat to the might of the Kiwis attack.

The final couple of games in Hamilton and Wellington are dead rubbers. Meanwhile, Pakistan will be looking to salvage some pride and most importantly momentum before the start of the three-match T20 International series.

We take a look at the comments from the skippers and player after the game.

Kane Williamson said:

Fantastic performance all-round. It was a tough surface to get in on and gain momentum. Good surface but was difficult to score. Trent was outstanding. Both new ball bowlers. They just didn’t bowl bad balls. Don’t think the pitch changed too much. If you bowled on a length, it was difficult to score. Halfway break we knew, still 250 on the board, we knew it was going to be tough. Taylor and Martin were outstanding coming in, able to generate a strike rate on a tough surface. They were better at working the ball around, lot better than I was. Focus is to win each game. Guys were smart today. Have to be smart again in Hamilton.

Sarfraz Ahmed said:

Very disappointing. Our bowlers bowled well. But our batting flopped again. We will sit together again before Hamilton and try to sort it out. Our problems have come against the new ball. Will look not to give too many wickets away in first 10 overs.

Man of the Match, Trent Boult said:

Nice to get a couple early on. Pretty windy out there. The wind was right behind me. I let it go as aggressively as I could. Big game for us, wanted to get the series done. We knew we had to fight hard with 250 on the board.