‘Draw khel ke bahut khush hui…’ – Fans slam Pakistan as their Test series against New Zealand ends in a draw

The second Test match between Pakistan and New Zealand just concluded with neither emerging victorious in the historic Test series. After the first game ended in a draw, everything depended on the outcome of the second game. For the fans, the Test match in Karachi was a real treat.

The toss was won by the visitors, who elected to bat first on what appeared to be a flat wicket. They were able to rack up a significant number of runs in the first innings thanks to Devon Conway’s outstanding century (122 runs in 191 balls). While Tom Latham (71) and Tom Blundell ( 51) also scored half-centuries, it was the 104-run partnership between Matt Henry (68) and Ajaz Patel (35) that helped New Zealand get to a total of 449 in the first innings.

In reply, it was Saud Shakeel (125 runs in 341 balls) who scored a century for Pakistan as they compiled 408 runs in their first innings. Imam Ul Haq and Sarfaraz Ahmed played outstanding knocks in addition to Shakeel, scoring 83 and 78 runs, respectively. At the end of the first innings, the Black Caps had a lead of 41 runs.

In the next innings, it was a decent effort from the Kiwi batters to set a good target for Pakistan. Blundel (74) and Latham (62) doubled up on their half-centuries from the previous innings, while Michael Bracewell (74 runs in 119 balls) also joined the party. With a score of 277/5 and a lead of 418 runs, Tim Southee made the bold choice of declaring the innings at the brink of day four.

This choice was wise because, in the final three overs of the day, Abdullah Shafique and night watchman Mir Hamza were both out for ducks. After that, the home side lost a few early wickets on day four. However, Sarfaraz Ahmed did wonders to bring the team back into the game. He scored a century to single-handedly bring the game close to a result.

He was dismissed for a score of 118 as Pakistan came down to 287/9. In the end, Naseem Shah came close to taking his team home with a small cameo of 15, while Abrar Ahmed supported him well. The two helped Pakistan get to a score of 304/9, just 15 runs short of the target. Unfortunately, umpires were forced to call it a day as the light dimmed a lot. With this, the two-match series ended in a 0-0 draw.

Here is how Twitter reacted to Pakistan vs New Zealand series