Tim Southee: “We got ourselves to push for a win, but the way Sarfaraz played sort of took the game away from us”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
New Zealand Test captain Tim Southee acknowledged that Pakistan wicketkeeper-batsman Sarfaraz Ahmed took the second Test away from his side in the two-Test series held from December 2022 to January 2023.
Sarfaraz fought valiantly to secure a draw for Pakistan, scoring a career-best 118, which came off 176 balls and included nine boundaries and a six.
Southee pointed out that New Zealand had their sights set on victory before the 36-year-old dug in and heroically rescued Pakistan by salvaging a draw.
Overall, Sarfaraz finished with 335 runs to his name in the two-Test series, which included a century and three fifties, at an average of 83.75.
“We got ourselves to push for a win, but the way Sarfaraz played sort of took the game away from us,” he was quoted as saying by Cricket Pakistan.
Sarfaraz recently captained the Quetta Gladiators in the Pakistan Super League (PSL), where he scored 162 runs in eight matches at an average of 27 and a strike-rate of 104.51.
He is now part of Pakistan’s squad for the upcoming tour of Sri Lanka in July, which will consist of two Test matches.
Pakistan Squad for Sri Lanka Test Series:Â Babar Azam (c), Mohammad Rizwan (vc & wk), Aamer Jamal, Abdullah Shafique, Abrar Ahmed, Hasan Ali, Imam-ul-Haq, Muhammad Huraira, Mohammad Nawaz, Naseem Shah, Noman Ali, Salman Ali Agha, Sarfaraz Ahmed (wk), Saud Shakeel, Shaheen Shah Afridi and Shan Masood