Pak-New Zealand Test draw thanks to Sarfraz’s brilliant century

Sarfaraz Ahmed’s brilliant century saved Pakistan the final match of the two-match series against New Zealand and the series ended in a draw.

On the last day of the second Test match of the series being played in Karachi, Pakistan resumed their second incomplete innings with the loss of two players for zero.

Both the players put on a partnership of 35 runs for the third wicket but on the same score, Imam could not keep his wickets and became Ash Sodhi’s wicket.

Captain Babar Azam and Shaun Masood batted confidently and took the score to 77 but at this stage the national team captain lost his wicket in an attempt to tease the ball towards the league, scoring 27 runs.

The national team was not even able to recover from the loss when Michael Bracewell took another important catch in his next over to end Shaun Masood’s innings of 35 runs.

After five wickets fell for 80 runs, Saud Shakeel came to support Sarfaraz Ahmed and both players played a responsible game and did not let any more wickets fall till the lunch break.

Both the players continued to play well in the second session of the game as Sarfaraz Ahmed completed his fourth consecutive half in the series.

Saud Shakeel and Sarfraz have so far put on a partnership of 88 runs for the sixth wicket, thanks to which Pakistan scored 169 runs for the loss of five wickets.

Sarfaraz Ahmed and Saud Shakeel made a long partnership of 123 runs to lock Pakistan in a stable position and gave the team hope of victory.

Saud Shakeel faced 146 balls and was dismissed for 32 runs.

Aghasalman came in at number seven to support Sarfraz Ahmed and made a valuable contribution of 70 runs off 83 balls.

Former captain Sarfaraz continued his responsible batting streak playing the role of the crisis man and completed his fourth Test century in 135 balls.

Aghasalman was dismissed for a valuable 30 runs off 40 balls at a time when Pakistan needed 46 runs to win.

Hasan Ali also could not stay on the wicket for long while New Zealand took the new ball and at the score of 282, captain Southee took full advantage and took the wicket of Hasan Ali and at that time Pakistan needed 37 runs to win.

Sarfaraz Ahmed was trapped in the New Zealand wide net during the final over and the outbound ball touched his gloves and fell into the hands of Cason Williamson standing behind.

A good catch by Kane Williamson cost Pakistan the loss of the 9th over and Sarfaraz was dismissed for 118 runs.

Naseem Shah and Abrar Ahmed added 16 runs in the last wicket and saved Pakistan from defeat and ended the match in a draw.

At the end of the match, Pakistan scored 304 runs for 9 wickets and needed 15 runs to win.

Naseem Shah scored 15 runs with the help of 2 fours and a six and Abrar Ahmed remained not out by scoring 7 runs.

For New Zealand, Michael Bracewell took the most 4 wickets, skipper Southee and Ash Sodhee got 2 wickets each.

It should be noted that the first match of the series between Pakistan and New Zealand also ended without any result.

Sarfraz Ahmed was declared the man of the match as well as the man of the series for saving the match with a brilliant century.