On 3rd May 2002, Pakistan completed their win against New Zealand at Lahore within three days. In the 1600th test match, it was the fifth largest victory margin as they won by an innings and 324 runs.
Pakistan were in the control of the match throughout and delivered an all-round performance to a relatively inexperienced New Zealand unit who could not cope. On 1st may Pakistan won the toss and New Zealand managed to get Shahid Afridi and Younis Khan in the first hour of the match. But that was only the good portion of the match for them and opener Imran Nazir and Inzamam-ul-Haq added 204 runs in the third wicket. Once Nazir was gone after scoring 127, Inzamam took the command and keep piling the runs. There were supports from Mohammad Yousuf, Abdul Razzaq, and Saqlain Mushtaq but none of them could cross 30 whereas Inzamam crossed 250. When Pakistan lost their 8th wicket at 534 he was on 261 and a triple century looked less likely. But he got support from Shoaib Akhtar who contributed valuable 37 runs and more importantly provided the support to Inzamam to become the second Pakistani after Hanif Mohammad to get a test triple hundred. Pakistan finally got 643 with Inzamam being the last wicket to get dismissed with his personal score of 329.
Not content with his batting, Shoaib came all guns blazing and got the first four Kiwi wickets within 12 overs to make them reeling at 21/4. With all the excitement he tripped over and fell in his follow up. He could not continue and had to sit out but the spinners Saqlain Mushtaq and Danish Kaneria took two more wickets to finish the day with 58/6 for New Zealand. On day three, Shoaib returned later and took the last two wickets of New Zealand innings to make them all out for just 73 runs. He himself finished with 6/11 from just 8.2 overs. With a lead of 570 runs, Pakistan captain Waqar Younis asked New Zealand to follow on. Shoaib did not bowl in the second innings but Danish Kaneria took five wickets and New Zealand were all out for 246 runs in their second innings on 3rd day only to give Pakistan one of the massive victories in test cricket history.
