Hamilton: New test captain Mohammad Rizwan showed his leadership quality in a bold innings of 89 which steered Pakistan to a four-wicket win over New Zealand in the third Twenty20 on Tuesday. Rizwan will lead Pakistan in the two-match test series against New Zealand starting on Sunday in place of Babar Azam, who is injured.

In Azam’s absence he also opened the batting in all three T20s, making 17 in Auckland and 22 in Hamilton before achieving a maiden half-century and career-best 89 from 59 balls on Tuesday. Rizwan beat his previous best of 33 not out.

With Rizwan’s leadership, Pakistan surpassed New Zealand’s moderate total of 173-7 with two balls to spare.

Rizwan batted his team within sight of victory when he was out in the final over at 171-6. Pakistan still needed three runs to win with four balls left. Iftikhar Ahmed settled the issue when he hoisted the fourth ball of the last over out of the ground for six, lifting Pakistan to 177-6.

New Zealand had already secured the series but Pakistan’s win at McLean Park sends it into the test series in a much more positive frame of mind.

Pakistan won the toss in all three matches, batting first in the first two. A change of tactics on Tuesday to bowl first on a tricky pitch proved successful.

Rizwan put on 40 for the first wicket with Haider Ali (11), then 72 in a match-winning partnership with Mohammad Hafeez. Coming off his unbeaten 99 in the second T20, Hafeez made 41 from 29 balls with two fours and three sixes.

When he was out, Hafeez was just 12 runs short of equaling Shoaib Malik’s record of 2,335 runs for Pakistan in T20s.

Pakistan had nervous moments near the end of the innings, especially when Tim Southee dismissed Faheem Ashraf and Shadab Khan with consecutive deliveries with the total 163. Iftikhar survived the hat trick ball and struck the winning runs an over later.

We lost the series but the last match is very important for the next series, Rizwan said.