Mohammad Rizwan narrowly avoided an early dismissal. Photo / Photosport
Mohammad Rizwan narrowly avoided an early dismissal. Photo / Photosport
Pakistan earned a pride-restoring win after a dominating chase that almost fell off the rails at the death.
Iftikhar Ahmed ended it with a giant six over square leg, a rich area of productivity throughout the innings, after Mohammad Rizwan had skied out trying the same thing two balls earlier.
Rizwan, in the unfamiliar position of opener, led the way with 89, making a mockery of his previous T20I best of 33 not out, as Pakistan reached their target with two balls to spare and four wickets in hand.
Pakistan's Mohammad Rizwan played a pivotal innings. Photo / Photosport
It was fully deserved, even if wickets off successive balls to Tim Southee in the penultimate over made it appear closer than it was.
It was a disappointing end to the series for New Zealand's bowlers who were hamstrung by the loss of their only frontline spinner Ish Sodhi (hamstring), their best fielder Martin Guptill and conditions that heavily favoured batting.
Even with those caveats, their inability to stop Pakistan hitting over the leg-side boundary was debilitating. Every time they looked like applying pressure they went too straight and were punished.
Senior bowler Trent Boult had an uncharacteristically difficult evening, conceding 43 off his four overs.
Earlier, Devon Conway gave New Zealanders another tantalising glimpse of his immense talent, scoring 63 off 45 balls to set up what looked like a competitive 173-7 on a pitch that was a little two-paced.
However, the dew fell heavy as night fell and Pakistan's two best players on the tour so far, Rizwan and Mohammad Hafeez, combined for a 72-run second-wicket partnership that tipped the balance.
Daryl Mitchell claimed a screamer. Photo / Photosport
Inserted for the first time this series, the in-form Tim Seifert started much like he did in games one and two.
So, unfortunately, did Guptill as his summer of disconnect continued with a bite-sized 19 off 16. It's not that he looks badly out of form, he just keeps getting out. That can happen in T20 cricket, but the top three spots in the order are the only places you can consistently build an innings and Guptill has not passed 35 in his last 10.
At 45-1 with a quarter of the innings gone, New Zealand were again sitting pretty but the introduction of Faheem Ashraf changed everything.
Bowling slower than those who went before, his mixture of cutters and skidders were tailor-made for conditions. He induced a chop-on from Kane Williamson and bowled a peach of an off-cutter to Seifert, 35 off 20, that disturbed his castle.
After two overs Faheem had 2-6 and at 58-3 the entire innings was reshaped.
For the first time in this series the line-up was under pressure. Relative novices to the international game, Conway and Glenn Phillips only intermittently found the middle of the bat, were slightly out of sync with their running and looked undecided as to who was playing the aggressor and who was batting through.
Devon Conway top-scored for the Black Caps. Photo / Photosport
When good light stopped play – a wholly unsatisfactory situation that says more about how suitable McLean Park is for international cricket than it does about the sun's malevolence – New Zealand were 85-3 after 11.4 overs and delicately poised.
The break favoured New Zealand. The batsmen had time to reintroduce themselves. Conway came back hitting singles; Phillips fours.
When Phillips holed out in the 15th over, Conway took over, hitting two cover drives to the fence that would not have looked out of place on the third day of a test at Lord's.
