Daily Times

When Pakistan embarked on their first tour of 2018 Down Under, many former players and critics were of the view that skipper Sarfraz Ahmad and his men would face an uphill task against New Zealand. And unpredictable Pakistan proved all those apprehensions true. When New Zealand defeated Pakistan by 15 runs in the fifth and final one-day international in Wellington on Friday they not only completed a rare series whitewash over the tourists but also ruthlessly exposed Pakistan’s shortcomings – the batting’s brittleness and the limitations of leadership harshly and more prominently. It is only the third time Pakistan have been on the wrong end of a 5-0 ODI clean sweep after they succumbed by the same margin to Australia in 2010 and the West Indies in 1988. Throughout the series, with flat and toothless bowling, Pakistan looked all at sea against the hosts who literally took the wind out of the visitors’ sails.

The series, despite the participation of many talented youngsters, proved disastrous with Pakistan hardly putting up a fight, barring perhaps the fourth game that was taken away from them by Colin de Grandhomme’s onslaught. None of the factors that won Pakistan the ICC Champions Trophy last year were on display against New Zealand. Improved fielding standards, perhaps, were the only uplifting aspect. Though there were some good individual performances, especially from all-rounder Shadab Khan, the team lacked the winning edge. Despite their brilliant performance in United Kingdom in 2017, doubts remained about Pakistan’s performance on fast and green tracks: such as those in New Zealand. International tours have always been a daunting prospect for the subcontinent’s teams, primarily owing to the bouncy pitches and strong weather conditions they face abroad, as opposed to the featherbeds in their own cricket grounds.

New Zealand had entered the series on the back of a clean-sweep over the West Indies at home. Pakistan, too, had whitewashed Sri Lanka in the UAE before they set off for New Zealand. The hosts were declared favourites by everyone because they had played some outstanding cricket at home last year and had only lost to South Africa during that period whereas Pakistan hadn’t lost an ODI since losing to India in their first group match of the ICC Champions Trophy. But what promised to be a cracker of a series turned out to be a lop-sided contest between the two sides, with New Zealand winning it comfortably. Kiwis had been so dominant that at no stage it seemed that the tourists were there to challenge them. Over all, it was a terrible and disgusting performance. Pakistan proved to be the masters of disaster. Showing inability to rotate the strike, against pace and spin alike, the Pakistan batsmen got stuck and never approached the run rate required to mount a genuine challenge in the series. With 262 the highest and 74 the lowest totals for the visitors, the clean sweep is not that difficult to understand.

Pakistan were no match for Martin Guptill, Kane Williamson, Ross Taylor, Colin Munro and Colin de Grandhomme who just ran over their opponents. New Zealand have won by a 5-0 margin only once before, when they hosted the West Indies in 2000. The result extends New Zealand’s winning streak in all forms of the game to 12 matches, a record for the team, and means they are undefeated at home since March last year. Pakistan have gone from being champions to being in shambles within the space of six months. Their winning streak is history and their batting line-up is back to pre-Champions Trophy standards. It was an agonising series for Pakistan, and a series of landmarks for New Zealand. So abysmal was their batting that Pakistan were not able to cross the 300-mark even once in the five games against the Black Caps. So below average was their bowling that New Zealand easily tamed it. The Pakistan batsmen and bowlers were completely dispirited in the ODI series. It was a poor showing from the Champions Trophy winners, who slumped to an unbelievable low.

Pakistan’s main disappointment was captain Sarfraz, who could only manage 79 runs in the series. Faheem Ashraf, Shoaib Malik, Babar Azam and Azhar Ali all looked clueless at the crease. Pakistan’s top and middle order were not able to post a formidable total and the rest was history. While watching Pakistan bat, one could see the discomfort on the faces of the batsmen and their body language and shot selection showed that they didn’t have any great game plan. Bowling has always been considered a big strength of Pakistan team. Yet main strike bowler Mohammad Amir bowled like a rookie, looking completely off color. During the series, Rumman Raees, Hasan Ali, Faheem Ashraf and Shadab Khan all took very few wickets. With their below par performance, New Zealand batsmen, most of the time, seemed at ease against them.

The series has shown that Pakistan batsmen are woefully clueless in conditions that they are not used to playing in; and that is increasingly becoming the case with the bowlers too. ODI cricket needs those players who should be technically sound and could tackle spin and pace as well to combat the nature of the wickets and conditions that change from session to session. No doubt, the triumph has given New Zealand the psychological edge going into the Twenty20 International series starting from January 22 (tomorrow).

Published in Daily Times, January 21^st 2018.