In the final one-day cricket international match, Pakistan was bowled out for 252 in 46.1 overs, which was their lowest total in the series, causing them to slip to No. 3 in the ODI rankings behind Australia and India. This happened even as run-machine Babar Azam, who was playing his 100th ODI, went for just one run in the final game.Pakistan had reached the top position in the ODI rankings after winning the fourth match of the series on Friday, but to maintain their No. 1 ranking, they required a clean sweep of 5-0 in the series.New Zealand captain Tom Latham won the toss for the third time in a row during the Karachi-leg of the cricket series and chose to bat first for the first time. The teams score of 299 in 49.3 overs was anchored by half centuries from Will Young (87) and Latham himself (59).Image source: mm.bing.netIftikhar Ahmed fell short of scoring his first ODI century but still managed to score a commendable unbeaten 94 off 72 balls, as Pakistan faced some problems with their top-order for the first time in the series. Fakhar Zaman (33) and Shan Masood (7) both had a difficult time facing Matt Henry and Adam Milnes precise bowling with the new ball. Masood was eventually bowled by Henry after struggling for 20 balls.Babar Azam had an exceptional series and achieved a milestone by becoming the fastest player to reach 5,000 runs in ODI cricket, taking only 97 innings. However, in the final game, he was dismissed when he was caught at backward point by Henry Shipley, one of the four new players introduced in the New Zealand team.Iftikhar Ahmed and Salman Ali Agha revived Pakistans chase by adding 97 runs for the fifth wicket. However, Henry Shipley dismissed Agha, who was caught at mid-off in the 35th over, and broke the partnership.In the final overs, Iftikhar was left with no reliable partners, and eventually, No.11 Haris Rauf was run out while trying to take a second run. Rachin Ravindra, the left-arm spinner, took three wickets for 65 runs. In the first innings, Will Young scored 87 runs, but couldnt get his second century of the series as Pakistans decision to include two leg-spinners in their bowling attack proved beneficial in the middle overs.The top-order of New Zealand lost five wickets, out of which two were taken by leg-spinners Usama Mir and Shadab Khan, who ended with figures of 2-53 and 2-67 respectively. Shadab managed to dismiss the important batsman Young, getting him caught at the slips after he found an edge of his bat. Chapman tried to increase the run rate along with Latham, but Shadab sent him back to the pavilion by having him caught by Mohammad Rizwan down the leg side.Usama Mir took the wickets of Henry Nicholls and Tom Latham, who got out while attempting a big shot and was caught in the deep. After the leg-spinners did their job, Pakistans pacers took over in the final overs of the innings.Rachin Ravindra and Cole McConchie made brief contributions with the bat, but Pakistans bowlers put on a strong performance in the last five overs, taking five wickets for just 32 runs. Shaheen Shah Afridi claimed three wickets, while Haris Rauf took one and restricted New Zealands scoring rate. New Zealand was missing eight regular players due to their involvement in the Indian Premier League. Despite trailing 2-0 in the T20 series, New Zealand managed to draw the series 2-2.
