The left-hander smashed 13 obstacles and a six in his 117 made off 114 balls for his 9th ODI hundred as Pakistan chased down a goal of 289 in 48.3 overs.
The victory offers Pakistan a 1-0 lead within the five-match sequence.
All-rounder Daryl Mitchell additionally made a century, scoring a super 115-ball 113 whilst opener Will Young hit 86 to lead New Zealand to a difficult overall of 288-7 of their 50 overs.
It used to be Zaman who carried the day for the house workforce, bringing Pakistan inside 34 runs of victory earlier than in spite of everything being stuck off a miscued shot.
Imam-ul-Haq (60 off 65 balls) and Zaman placed on 124 for the primary wicket via the twenty second over, negating New Zealand’s assault on a flat Pindi stadium pitch.
Once Haq, who hit 5 obstacles and a six in his fifteenth ODI fifty, used to be got rid of leg-before via spinner Ish Sodhi, Pakistan had been carried additional in opposition to the objective via a 90-run stand between Zaman and skipper Babar Azam.
Azam fell one in need of a half-century when he edged pacer Adam Milne at the back of the stumps to Tom Latham. He hit 3 fours and a six off 46 balls.
Pakistan stuttered when Shan Masood fell for a depressing 12-ball one and Agha Salman for seven however Mohammad Rizwan ensured the chance used to be now not wasted via hitting the successful boundary all over his 34-ball 42 now not out.
The victory used to be Pakistan’s five hundredth in 949 ODIs.
“This was a team effort, we wanted to start well,” mentioned Azam. “The credit belongs to the fast bowlers for the way we restricted them in the end and then Fakhar played a solid match-winning knock.”
New Zealand skipper Latham rued his workforce’s incapability to get an early leap forward.
“I think the score we got was about par,” mentioned Latham. “Daryl played a superb innings but we couldn’t make inroads when Pakistan batted.”
Earlier, Mitchell smashed his best ODI ranking to anchor New Zealand’s innings when they had been despatched in to bat.
Mitchell, who hit 11 fours and a six, added 102 for the second one wicket with opener Young who performed a beautiful 78-ball knock.
Mitchell in spite of everything holed out to deep mid-wicket off speedy bowler Shaheen Shah Afridi within the forty seventh over, bettering on his earlier best possible of 100 now not out towards Bangladesh in 2021.
Young hit 8 obstacles and two sixes earlier than being stuck off spinner Shadab Khan at long-off.
Mitchell, dropped on 23 via Salman off his personal bowling, then boosted New Zealand’s innings with a forged stand of 72 with Latham (20).
But towards some tight bowling, the guests controlled simply 66 within the ultimate ten overs.
Mark Chapman, who starred for New Zealand within the previous five-match Twenty20 sequence which ended 2–2, used to be bowled via pacer Haris Rauf after scoring 15.
(AI pictures)
For Pakistan, Naseem Shah had figures of 2-29, Shaheen 2-63 and Rauf 2-65.
The final suits are in Rawalpindi on Saturday and in Karachi on May 3, 5 and seven.