New Zealand vs Pakistan, 33rd match at Birmingham, Jun 26 2019 - Match Result

7:45pm And that is all! Thanks for joining us through the day. Good night.

Sarfraz: The crowd is always behind the Pakistan team. Thank you very much. Fielding is a very important part. Unfortunately we didn't do well in the previous matches. We practiced hard. The way we played today, it was a great team effort. All the bowlers did really well and in the end Babar and Haris - one of the finest batting I've ever seen. We knew 240 was not an easy target on this pitch. We just wanted to bat 50 overs. Credit to Babar and Haris, the way they played on this pitch. [On 1992] when the World Cup starts, people think that way. But we're not thinking like that. Our focus is the next match. We are very confident and hopefully we'll do well.

Williamson: We've seen it in our last three games, where the surfaces have offered to the bowlers and made life difficult. We were outplayed by a strong Pakistan side. I think there was a little bit more bounce than we experienced on the same surface we played the other day. The fight that was shown in the middle and back end was good, to get us in a position where we were competitive. But that partnership with Babar and Haris, they took it from us. [Shadab] yeah it was nice wasn't it? We tried to soak it up. Thought if we get 230-250, there was a chance. And there was, but they soaked up the pressure and played really nicely. When the threat is spin, especially when the wicket became a lot slower, we were trying to get anybody in there who would rotate the ball. There's so many games in the round robin that you're not expecting to win them all. There's things we need to iron out. We'll have to adapt a little better than we did today.

Babar: This is my best innings. the wicket was difficult and turned a lot in the second half. The plan was to go through to the end and give my 100%. When we started, the plan was to see out Ferguson. But when Santner came on, the plan became not to give wickets to him and cover up later when the fast bowlers come on. The fans support us here in Birmingham, it's great.

Babar Azam is the Man of the Match.

7:30pm Edgbaston explodes and the Pakistan players rush onto the field. They've copped an absolute truckload of criticism and been written off, but a comprehensive win over South Africa and a clinical one over NZ today have seen them storm back into contention!

Don't write them off just yet. They are one point behind England and level with Bangladesh. A mature chase, shepherded by a young man with a head far wiser than his 24 years would suggest. NZ suffer their first defeat of the 2019 World Cup, and their first group stage defeat in 8 years.

Mickey Arthur runs down the changing room with an arm around Shaheen Afridi, a wide grin on his face. His team is not going down without a fight, and that is all he;s asked of them.

Ferguson to bowl the final over

Fahim: "In 1992 SF Pakistan won by 4 wickets not 7" In the group stages it was 7 wkts

Lots of you pointed out Pakistan beat NZ by 7 wickets in '92. That will not happen now. Has Haris unjinxed it all?

Anyhow, the captain's here

Farhan: "Haris Sohail, what a commanding batter he is. Shows glimpses of Inzi & Yuvi."

Hold the press - Matt Henry's here! Lots of you missed him.

Malik Murad : "I think Williamson got too excited after taking Hafeez's wicket and bowled 8 overs. He should have created more pressure at that time. " To be fair, everyone got excited