Za-man of the hour as Pak reign in rain-hit tie

AFTER being hit around the park for more than four hundred runs in the first innings, Pakistan fans would, no doubt, have been praying for the forces of nature to be unleashed in Bengaluru on Saturday evening.

- VISHNU PRASAD

They got two. The first came in the form of rain that interrupted play twice and made the Pakistani chase brief and easy to keep track of. The second was Fakhar Zaman.

To be fair, Pakistan would still have romped home against New Zealand even without the rain, for that was the kind of imperious form that Zaman found himself in. When rain stopped play for the second and final time, Pakistan were 200-1 from just 25.3 overs chasing the Kiwis' first innings total of 401/6. Zaman accounted for 126 of those runs while their much-maligned captain Babar Azam had played an able second fiddle with a 63-ball 66. Messrs Duckworth, Lewis and Stern decreed that they were ahead by 21 runs.

The victory infused Pakistan with life, a couple of matches after they had been left for dead.