Pakistan vs New Zealand, 5th ODI at Karachi, PAK v NZ, May 07 2023 - Match Result

Thanks for joining us throughout this series. It's time for me, Rvel Zahid, to say goodbye on behalf of Shashwat Kumar and everyone else at Cricinfo. Adios, be well!

A spirited bowling performance from New Zealand guide them to victory in the fifth and final ODI. They have improved as the series progressed in all departments of the game and looked resolute to bag their first win of the series tonight. Pakistan were in trouble early on after losing wickets in quick succession and were playing catch-up for the most part of the chase.

New Zealand started well in the game, putting up a defendable total and kept coming back with the ball. They stemmed the flow of runs in the first phase of the innings, which forced Pakistan's top order to play jailbreak shots as the asking rate kept climbing up. Henry took the first wicket by getting the better of Shan Masood, and then Shipley got the vital scalps of Babar and Rizwan. Rachin bowled exceptionally well as he has throughout this series, getting rid of the in-form Fakhar Zaman. Thereon, Agha Salman and Iftikhar Ahmed stitched a crucial partnership for the fifth wicket, but then Agha's wicket opened the floodgates. Lower-order batters came in, hit some lusty blows and then got out.

The standout bowler of the day, Shipley, returned to break the key partnership and then the game was only headed in one direction. Henry, Milne were also superb at crunch moments, didn't give much leeway to the batters while Sodhi and Ravindra caused hiccups in Pakistan's chase in the middle overs. Apart from Iftikhar Ahmed's staggering unbeaten 94 and Salman Agha's quickfire half-century, nobody else stuck around for long enough to make this game more interesting and take it down to the wire. In the end we saw Iftikhar disappointed as he was striking the ball effortlessly from his end and things could have been different had he got more support from the other end.

Babar Azam, Pakistan Captain: "The way we planned, we couldn't finish it that way. However, the entire series was outstanding. We collapsed early on in the batting. We needed a partnership early on which couldn't happen. We could have finished well after Salman Ali Agha got set, but then wickets started to fall from one end. In Karachi, we were surprised that there weren't as good batting conditions as we expected while batting second but you have to perform no matter what the conditions are. I think we should have played better cricket. New Zealand bowled well tonight. Overall, the series was good, there were good performances and many positives. We were able to check our bench strength and we tried different combinations to get to know where our one-day team stands. We were having an issue with the middle order and were lacking there but we got some options now."

Tom Latham, New Zealand Captain: "Certainly pleasing to put on a complete performance in the last game. Shipley bowled fantastically well with the new ball, he found the right lengths on this wicket. We probably got a par score and got wickets in the powerplay which we haven't done in the series. I think if you look back at the T20 series, it was about trying to improve from game to game, we wanted to expose players to different roles and I think it was a great opportunity for all of them to experience these conditions"

Fakhar Zaman, Player of the Series "Look, you are never satisfied in cricket but I am glad that we won the series and my contribution helped the side. As a team, we have found some answers to the missing links as you saw how Agha Salman and Iftikhar Ahmed played."

Hang around for the presentation ceremony!

TheUnbiasedCric: "That NZ won this without their Top 7 players is truly commendable!"

Abdullah : "Oh Iftimania, please don't give us hope. Either get out or finish the match till the end. Please don't leave our hearts broken at the end"

Kushal Kandel : "While watching the replays , it was clear that bails are clipped and jingled when the hand of bowler hit it rather then by the deflected ball . Quite controversial decision I would say . "

Rauhan: "Nothing to take away from NZ (winning this without few main players) but Pakistan was also missing 3 sure starters like Imam, Naseem and Nawaz. IftiMania deserved better partners at the end but I think Pak got great idea for their squad of WC"

Ghafar: "Losing #1 ranking due to one match was not a big concern, Touching #1 was special. Pakistan has World Class Top 3. World #1 Babar, World Class pacers. 2 quality all-rounders. We lacked in spin & middle order before the series but Iftikhar, Agha & Usama give us hope!"

Munir Ranjha: "Not good batting by the lower order/tailenders. They should play supporting role with Iftikhar Ahmad."

Stumps get rearranged behind