Pakistan played out a draw against New Zealand in the second and final Test of the series in Karachi, as umpires had to end the day due to bad light as the visitors needed one wicket to win and the hosts needed just 15 runs to be victors.
Resuming the fifth day on 0/2, Ish Sodhi struck soon as Imam Ul Haq was bowled for 12 runs. Shan Masood with 35 and Babar Azam with 27 brought some stability to the innings before Michael Bracewell removed both of them to reduce Pakistan to 80/5.
However, Sarfaraz Ahmed continued his golden comeback and with Saud Shakeel (32) added 123 runs for the 6th wicket and then 70 more runs with Salman Agha (30). Sarfaraz, who had scored 78 runs in the first innings, completed his fourth Test ton and finally fell for 118 runs in 176 balls.
New Zealand then tried to end the game, by removing Hasan Ali for 5 runs, but the last two batters Naseem Shah (15* in 11 balls) and Abrar Ahmed (7* in 13 balls) evaded those attempts and held their fort as the Test came to a draw.
Michael Bracewell picked 4/75, while Tim Southee and Ish Sodhi picked two wickets each.
Sarfaraz Ahmed was named the Player of the Match and Player of the Series in his comeback, but Pakistan remained winless at home in 2022, as they lost the series to Australia (0-1) and England (0-3).
Meanwhile, the Pakistani cricket fraternity took to Twitter to laud Sarfaraz and the national team for a wonderful encounter in Karachi.
Here are the tweets:
