📰 Ben Sears and Mitch Hay lift Black Caps to series victory over Pakistan

Mitch Hay and Ben Sears have ensured the Black Caps will end the home summer with back-to-back series victories over Pakistan.

Hay cracked a new best international score of 99no and Sears collected his first five ODI wickets as New Zealand claimed the second match at Seddon Park and clinched the series with a game to spare.

After romping to a 4-1 triumph in the T20 series, the 84-run win in Hamilton followed a 73-run victory in game one in Napier, making the third match in Mount Maunganui on Saturday a dead rubber.

The Black Caps’ success to round out the season has come while both teams are missing a host of front-line players, with the hosts’ dominance reflecting their increasing depth.

Hay (99no off 78) issued a convincing bid to be the team’s long-term wicketkeeper, reviving an innings stalled on 132-5 and launching an impressive acceleration to reach a total of 292-8.

Sears (5-59) then combined effectively with fellow seamers Jacob Duffy (3-35) and Will O’Rourke (1-19), reducing Pakistan to 72-7 in a chase that ended on 208 in the 42nd over.

Both teams’ batters struggled on a pitch that provided movement off the seam and, under grey skies, offered plenty of swing, but only New Zealand sufficiently capitalised when facing an ageing ball.

After rookie openers Rhys Mariu and Nick Kelly were asked to bat and delivered a fast start, the middle order struggled to follow suit as scoring ground to a halt.

Needing to rebuild through the middle overs, Hay combined with Muhammad Abbas in a sixth-wicket partnership of canny strategy and eventually productive results, spending 35 balls together before Hay hit the first boundary.

“It was pretty tough out there to start – I’d hate to see my strike rate those first 20 balls,” Hay told TVNZ, having notched four runs before finding the fence on the 20th delivery he saw.

“But Mo was awesome out there, really clear, we had a nice plan and thought if we did work hard through that period we could put a bit of pressure on at the end.

“He started that against the spin, which was impressive, and then it was nice to just flow on through the death of the innings.”

Abbas signalled it was time to attack when ending the 38th over with consecutive boundaries, the 21-year-old having proven his graft following a record-setting half-century from 24 balls on debut.

Hay responded with back-to-back sixes and while the loss of Abbas (41 off 66) initially halted his charge, the wicketkeeper blasted 58 runs off the final 20 balls he faced, collecting 22 from the final over.

“It was nice to get a couple out of the middle,” Hay said. “The Seddon Park boundaries are generous for batsmen, so that’s always nice.”

That sentiment was understandable from a player who had smacked seven sixes but the quality of Hay’s ball-striking was then demonstrated by Pakistan managing eight as a team.

The tourists had no answer to a devastating opening spell from O’Rourke, desperately unlucky to claim only the wicket of Abdullah Shafique while sending down six overs for eight runs.

The Pakistani batters were fortunate to play and miss given the punishment O’Rourke was otherwise inflicting, with his bounce and movement leading to a number of body blows and eventually forcing Haris Rauf to retire hurt with concussion.

His fellow seamers were beneficiaries of O’Rourke’s pressure, as Salman Agha and Mohammad Rizwan tried and failed to release the valve in Sears’ first over.

The 27-year-old, who claimed five wickets in his first and only test last summer, got off the mark in his third ODI before some lower-order resistance made the margin closer than the contest.

This article was first published on nzherald.co.nz and is republished here with permission