The ICC World Twenty20 apart, Pakistan have not been good at winning series or tournaments in recent years. They haven’t won a Test series in three years and an ODI series for a year. Their win at the Sheikh Zayed stadium on Tuesday has, however, given them an ideal opportunity to change that statistic on Friday.

They are in good shape to do it as well; most of their bowlers looked sharp and took wickets, the fielding wasn’t a mess either, the lower middle order was in the runs and Shahid Afridi is in irrepressible mood. The only real issue was Salman Butt’s less than convincing return, though in fairness, Pakistan’s lack of opening strength has been an issue for so long, it has become a non-issue. Younis Khan’s duck will be a graver concern, as it represents a longer pattern of ODI indifference this year. If they win the series another low score might not hurt so much, but it will be gnawing away at him.

Pakistan

vs

New Zealand

Pakistan vs New Zealand 2nd ODI Live Streaming

New Zealand squad
DL Vettori*, SE Bond, NT Broom, IG Butler, JEC Franklin, MJ Guptill, BB McCullum†, NL McCullum, KD Mills, JDP Oram, AJ Redmond, TG Southee, SB Styris, LRPL Taylor, BJ Watling
Pakistan squad
Younis Khan*, Abdul Razzaq, Iftikhar Anjum, Imran Farhat, Kamran Akmal†, Khalid Latif, Mohammad Aamer, Mohammad Yousuf, Naved-ul-Hasan, Saeed Ajmal, Salman Butt, Shahid Afridi, Shoaib Malik, Umar Akmal, Umar Gul, Wahab Riaz