Series win the right tonic before WC: Afridi

Wahab Riaz (L) and Kamran Akmal (2nd L) celebrate the wicket of James Franklin (R). -Photo by AFP Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi termed his side’s 41-run victory in the fifth one-day international against New Zealand that ensured a 3-1 series win the right tonic at the right time given the upcoming World Cup. Riding the wave of their thrilling two-wicket win in the fourth ODI in Napier, Pakistan put on a good batting display led by opener Ahmed Shehzad whose 115 off 109 balls – his maiden ODI century – pushed his side to a solid 268. Afridi then led by example with the ball, picking up two wickets alongside Wahab Riaz and Umar Gul – who snapped up three and two respectively – to trigger another New Zealand collapse and ensure the win was eventually achieved with little over three overs to spare. Afridi, who is also battling the uncertainty surrounding the team over the World Cup captaincy issue, said after the match that the series win was timely tonic. "This is what we expected of the boys," Afridi said. "After a long time, Pakistan have won a series and this came at the right time for us, right before a World Cup." "Ahmed Shehzad, what a talent he is. But yes, given the way that we were playing, I expected us to reach 300, 300-plus but in the middle, the wicket became a bit slow, and they [New Zealand] bowled very well towards the end." Ross Taylor, standing in as captain for the injured Daniel Vettori, too praised his bowlers for stemming the flow of runs in the Pakistan innings, but admitted the batting display left plenty to be desired. “I think we were very happy to restrict them to 268, the way that Kyle [Mills] and Jacob [Oram] brought us back into the game. They were looking to get a score well over 300 and to restrict them to 268 was a very good job.” The Kiwis lost their last five wickets for 35 in a collapse which has now become customary, despite the efforts of opener Martin Guptill (65) and Taylor (69) who gave the home crowd hope of a series-levelling win. Taylor added: "We pretty much wanted to be chasing 85, 90 in the last 10 overs. We did that but we lost too many wickets and put too much pressure on the lower order. "The way that Pakistan bowled with their reverse swing in the death overs, it was always going to be hard to get that score and they bowled really well."