Third T20I between Pakistan Men’s Cricket Team and New Zealand Men’s Cricket Team has just finished in Dunedin with New Zealand winning by 45 runs and leading the five match series by 3-0.
New Zealand was asked to bat first as Pakistan has won the toss and choose to ball first. Fin Allen had surely the best innings of his life scoring 137 off 62 balls with 16 sixes and 5 fours. He also set a record of being the high individual run scorer for New Zealand in T20Is. Finn Allen is the first batsman to hit 10 sixes in a T20I innings against Pakistan. Tim Seifert also contributed to the board with his 31 off 23 balls. Finn Allen pummelled 16 sixes in his terrific knock and helped his team put up this colossal total of 224. He was striking at 221.0 and made life easier for his teammates. New Zealand finishes off with 224/7 and giving a target of 225 rom 20 overs to Pakistan. Pakistan made three changes to their line-up, but they were still expensive. Rauf leaked 60, Shaheen 43, Nawaz 44, and nothing really worked for them. They managed to slow things down a little bit towards the death after Allen got out. Zaman Khan and Muhammad Wasim Jnr were the economical amongst the Pakistan bowlers, both getting one wicket each with the economy of 9.25 and 8.75 respectively. Shaheen Shah Afridi and Muhammad Nawaz took one wicket each and finish with the economy of 10.75 and 11.0 each. Haris Rauf took two wickets and finish with the economy of 15.00.
Pakistan loses Saim Ayub’s wicket early and Rizwan fell for Santner in 8th over. Fakhar Zaman contributed 19 and Muhammad Nawaz contributed 28 to the scoreboard. It was all in all Babar Azam’s performance in the three matches as Babar scored his 33 fifty in T20Is and third consecutive in the series. Among the wcket takers from the New Zealand side; Tim Southee gets 2 wickets While Lockie Fergurson, Mitchell santner, Matt henery and Ish Sodhi took one each. Pakistan finish the 0 overs for 179/7.
Congratulations to New Zealand on the series win and commiserations to Pakistan, who end up on the losing side. Tim Southee did a splendid job once again and was good in both his spells. Lockie Ferguson bowled a magnificent spell, and Mitchell Santner, who was wearing the captain’s armband in the absence of Kane Williamson, took 1/26 and didn’t allow Pakistan to get off the hook. The highlight of the day was Finn Allen’s 137, which is the eighth-highest score in T20Is. He simply killed the game with that spellbinding knock. Pakistan couldn’t address their middle-order issues, and their bowling was abysmal as a unit. Lots of areas of concern, but they have two more games to get it right and carry some confidence because it’s a World Cup year, and every game is an opportunity to learn, weed out issues, and identify best 11.
The two teams now move to Christchurch for their last two games on Friday and Sunday.
