Sarfaraz was the difference, says NZ's Southee; Pakistan's Babar rues winless run

The two-test series in Karachi ended in a 0-0 stalemate even though New Zealand were in a position to win both only to be thwarted by bad light and Sarfaraz's red-hot form in the 35-year-old's first series in nearly four years.

New Zealand sensed a series-clinching victory in the second test when they reduced Pakistan to 80-5 having set them a daunting victory target of 319.

Sarfaraz produced a career-best 118, his first test hundred since 2014, to help Pakistan eke out a dramatic draw at Karachi's National Stadium on Friday.

"Sarfaraz was outstanding... not only today but throughout the whole series," Southee told reporters after bad light stopped play with New Zealand one-wicket away from winning the series and Pakistan 15 runs short of victory.

"He came out, he played positive cricket, played busy cricket. For somebody who hasn’t played for four years, credit to him."

"We knew from the nature of the surface that things could happen late in the test but Sarfaraz was probably the difference. We could’ve won had we got him earlier."

Sarfaraz's glovework was rather sloppy but his scores of 86, 53, 78 and 118 made him the obvious choice for both the player-of-the-match and player-of-the-series honours.

His counter-attacking knock impacted New Zealand's bowling tactics as well, forcing the tourists to defer taking the new ball.

"If he didn't play as positive as he did throughout the day then we would have been able to take the new ball because we would have had a lot more runs to play with."

Southee said "a lot of good cricket" was played in the series but the disappointment of the draw lingered.

"You play to win test matches and we got ourselves in, probably, positions to win both of them," Southee said.

"It was pretty tough going but the guys toiled away and we were one ball away from a series victory.

"So yeah, disappointing to walk away (0-0) and I'm sure Pakistan are the same."

Pakistan's Babar rues winless home season

Pakistan captain Babar Azam (28) was dejected by the team's winless home season but refuses to blame players' injuries or unresponsive pitches for their lean run.

The 0-0 stalemate in the series against New Zealand followed a 3-0 whitewash at the hands of England last month.

They have now gone eight tests at home without a win, which put paid to their hopes of making the World Test Championship final, and Babar conceded this was not how he expected the season to unfold.

"The test season hasn't gone according to expectations," Babar told a news conference after Pakistan narrowly avoided a third successive home series defeat.

"It's not an excuse but some of our players were unfit which disturbed our combination."

Their bowling unit particularly suffered.

Pace spearhead Shaheen Afridi (22) remains sidelined with a knee injury, while fellow quick Haris Rauf (29) and Naseem Shah (19) missed the bulk of the series against England with niggles.

The pitches used for the series against England and New Zealand also drew flak for being too batter-friendly and Babar said it did not help their cause either.

"Of course, there's talk about the pitches, but conditions are different at every venue.

"We give our input on pitches, but you get the pitches you get, and after that you have to execute your plans. You can't just complain about losing a match because of pitches.

"We prepared them according to our plans, but results didn't go our way."

Pakistan and New Zealand now square off in a three-match one-day international series beginning on Monday.