Pakistan vs. New Zealand warm-up match:

Pakistan lost to New Zealand by five wickets in a warm-up match on Friday at Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Hyderabad.

Pakistan lost to New Zealand in a practice match held on Friday in the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Hyderabad, India. Pakistan lost by five wickets to New Zealand in this match. 

Pakistan encountered 345 runs on the board with a loss of five wickets. Babar, Rizwan, Saud Shakeel and Agha Salman batted brilliantly and put up a score of 345 runs with five wickets loss. 

Babar Azam, the captain, scored 80 runs in 84 balls with a strike rate of 95.23. He showed his class at a crucial moment where the openers failed to deliver. 

At the same time, from the other end, Muhammad Rizwan, the wicket-keeper batsman scored a brilliant hundred and was looking in great touch. He retired himself after scoring 103 off 94 balls with a strike rate of 109.57. 

Saud Shakeel, the middle order batsman, set the stage by scoring 75 runs in 53 balls with his classy shots. Agha Salman, at the other end, played 33 off 23 with a strike rate of 143.47 and remained not-out. 

In the bowling side, neither Shaheen bowled, nor Shadab and even Haris bowled only 4 overs. Hassan Ali looked good with the new ball, but he went for runs later on. He must get more time to play. Wasim junior once again was not consistent with his line and remain impactless again.

Usama Mir took two wickets but he went with so many runs which wasn’t upto the mark. Muhammad Nawaz was good in the start but he remained wicketless which was not a good sign at those pitches. 

The goal of these games is to give every member of the squad game time prior to the start of the actual matches. Gaining the upper hand in these games merely boosts confidence.

Here, in this blog we will talk about some positives and some negatives about Pakistan from the match against New Zealand. 

Positives: 

The some of the positives for Pakistan ahead of the World Cup 2023 are:

1. Babar looked fluent like before and regained his touch a bit.
2. Rizwan once again showed us why he belongs at position four. 
3. We had an opportunity to watch Saud Shakeel, and he demonstrated that he is a skilled player of both speed and spin. 
4. Hassan Ali was given some playing time, and even though he subsequently went for runs later on, he performed rather well with the new ball. 
5. Salman Agha got the opportunity and even though he didn’t got enough time but he somehow showed that he can play fast at that number.
6. Now that Babar has a strong understanding of the situation, he will know to bat second if he wins the toss in the World Cup on wickets similar to this one. The team batting second has the advantage on such roadways.

Negatives: 

The some of the negatives from the warm-up match against New Zealand, which Pakistan needs to work on and take it seriously:

1. The way in which Abdullah Shafique lost his wicket by twirling halfway down the field. Well, that was irresponsible of him. 
2. Rauf’s overs which he bowled were quite expensive. He consistently delivered short and wide deliveries, which resulted to boundary hits. On such conditions, he should be bowling more straight. 
3. Again, fielding wasn’t upto the mark as Williamson’s catch was thrown away. Then, Iftikhar didn’t try to catch Chapman or Neesham in the bowling of Usama. If we want to succeed in this tournament and win games, we must improve our fielding. 
4. Usama Mir took 2 wickets, but he still needs to stop the flow of runs. He leaks too many runs. 
5. Nawaz wasn’t the way he should be bowling at such venues and he proved to be impactless again.
6. It’s disappointing to watch Wasim Junior’s inability to bowl a consistent line and as a result he leaked too many runs.

Conclusion:

In conclusion, Pakistan experienced more negatives than positives, but the good thing is that Pakistan can now plan for the actual matches while taking these drawbacks into consideration. Pakistan needs to work more on its negatives to get the upper hand in all the World Cup matches.