ABU DHABI: Captain Kane Williamson and Ross Taylor missed out on centuries but managed to lift New Zealand to a respectable 275-4 against Pakistan in the series-deciding fifth One-day International here at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium on Friday.

Williamson, who scored a century to level the series on Wednesday, made 97 with eight fours, and Taylor was unbeaten on 88 off 95 balls, hitting five fours and a six.

They revived New Zealand’s innings with a 116-run, third-wicket stand off 138 balls, after Williamson won the toss.

Williamson top-edged a sweep off captain Shahid Afridi to miss out on successive centuries, but Taylor remained calm as New Zealand scored 85 runs in the last 10 overs.

Fast bowler Mohammad Irfan took 2-62, while Afridi bowled an economical 10 overs to finish with 1-33.

Irfan provided the early breakthrough in his second over when Martin Guptill (8) poked at a short-pitched delivery and edged it to second slip.

Dean Brownlie looked edgy against spin in scoring 34 off 51 balls, but managed to add 66 runs with Williamson before he fell lbw to left-arm spinner Zulfiqar Babar, playing his first match of the series in place of left-arm paceman Sohail Tanvir.

Williamson, at 24, became the youngest New Zealand skipper to complete 2,000 runs in ODI cricket when he reached 52 and was the second quickest Kiwi batsman to reach the milestone after Andrew Jones.

Williamson was denied successive centuries at the same venue when Afridi got him in the 43rd over.

Taylor reached his half-century off 67 balls with a straight-driven boundary off Irfan.

Luke Ronchi (16), promoted in the batting over, hit a four and a six but gave a skier to Afridi at mid off, then Tom Latham (22 not out) hit four boundaries and added 34 off 22 balls with Taylor to help give the New Zealand total heft.

Scoreboard

NEW ZEALAND:

M. Guptill c Asad b Irfan8D. Brownlie lbw b Zulfiqar34K. Williamson c Shehzad b Afridi97R. Taylor not out88L. Ronchi c Afridi b Irfan16T. Latham not out22

EXTRAS (LB-5, W-5)10

TOTAL (for four wkts, 50 overs)275

FALL OF WKTS: 1-20, 2-86, 3-202, 4-241.

BOWLING: Irfan 10-0-62-2 (2w); Zulfiqar 10-0-61-1; Afridi 10-0-33-1 (2w); Anwar 10-0-62-0 (1w); Haris 8-0-38-0; Shehzad 2-0-14-0.

PAKISTAN: Shahid Afridi (captain), Ahmed Shehzad, Haris Sohail, Asad Shafiq, Mohammad Irfan, Nasir Jamshed, Sarfraz Ahmed, Zulfiqar Babar, Umar Akmal, Younis Khan, Anwar Ali.

UMPIRES: Ahsan Raza (Pakistan) and Joel Wilson (West Indies)

TV UMPIRE: Richard Illingworth (England)

MATCH REFEREE: Roshan Mahanama (Sri Lanka).

Published in Dawn, December 20th, 2014