DUBAI // Newcomer Haris Sohail batted with maturity during his first one-day international (ODI) half-century to steer Pakistan to a three-wicket win in the first ODI against New Zealand.
The left-hander, 25, scored 85 off 109 balls and added 110 for the seventh wicket with veteran Shahid Afridi (61 from 51 balls) to rescue Pakistan from a precarious 124 for six and into a 1-0 lead in the five-match series.
Pakistan, set a daunting 247-run target, were struggling at 40 for three before Sohail added 34 with captain Misbah-ul Haq (13) and 38 with Sarfraz Ahmed (26) to steady the innings.
With just 13 needed at a run-a-ball Afridi was run out but Sohail hit Jimmy Neesham for a fifth boundary to seal the win with three balls to spare. He also hit a six. Afridi hit seven boundaries and a six in his 37th one-day fifty.
Earlier Ross Taylor became the sixth batsman, and first from his country, to score three hundreds in consecutive matches to lift New Zealand to 246 for seven.
Pakistan’s Zaheer Abbas and Saeed Anwar and South Africa’s Herschelle Gibbs, AB de Villiers and Quinton de Kock have also achieved the feat.
Pakistan lost wickets at regular intervals with Mohammad Hafeez (six), Asad Shafiq (five), Ahmed Shahzad (28) and Younis Khan (four) trudging back to the pavilion with the score barely passing 50.
Paceman Kyle Mills gave New Zealand the breakthrough in the fifth over bowling Hafeez before Daniel Vettori struck twice and Neesham once. It were Sohail and Afridi who rescued Pakistan.
Taylor also had held together the New Zealand innings after Mohammed Irfan (3-57) had inflicted serious damage on the top order.
Taylor added 58 for the seventh wicket with former captain Vettori (27) in the final overs after steadying the innings during a 44-run sixth wicket stand with Luke Ronchi, who made 23.
Irfan had dismissed opener Dean Brownlie (14) and skipper Kane Williamson (10) in his first five-over spell before returning to take Ronchi’s wicket in the 38th over.
Tom Latham was run out for 13 and Neesham was lbw to Afridi for one as New Zealand were left struggling at 111 for five.
Paceman Wahab Riaz claimed the wickets of opener Anton Devcich (26) and Vettori to finish with two for 51. But Taylor kept one end intact, reaching his 27th one-day fifty with a single.
He hit Umar Gul for a six and a four and then took a sharp single to complete his hundred off 133 balls with eight fours and a six.
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