New Zealand defeated Pakistan by seven wickets in the fourth T20 of the five-match series played at Oval Stadium today in New Zealand.
New Zealand won the toss and invited Pakistan to bat first. Saim Ayub and Muhammad Rizwan opened the innings but the former failed this time as well, getting caught out at slip for just one run in the second over.
Pakistan’s second out was Babar Azam who was dismissed for 19 runs on a total of 56 runs, while Fakhar Zaman was also dismissed for 9 runs off 15 balls.
Sahibzada Farhan, who joined the team in place of Azam Khan, also fell quickly, after just two balls and scoring just one run. Wickets continued to fall, but on the other hand, Muhammad Rizwan continued to push the team’s score forward with responsible batting and completed his half-century. With the score at 126, Iftikhar Ahmed got out after playing an innings of 10 runs off 14 balls.
Mohammad Rizwan scored 90 runs off 63 balls and Mohammad Nawaz scored 21 runs off 9 balls.
Chasing the target of 159 runs, the first three players of New Zealand were out for just 20 runs, with the first wicket falling in the form of Finn Allen for eight runs by Shaheen Shah Afridi. Then Tim Seifert was caught and dismissed by Shaheen Shah Afridi again, who also sent Will Young to the pavilion for just four runs.
After the early fall of three wickets, Daryl Mitchell and Glenn Phillips washed away the Pakistani bowlers and both players not only completed their fifties but also led their team to victory and remained unbeaten.
Daryl Mitchell scored 72 and Glenn Phillips remained not out with 70 runs. The two players shared a partnership of 139 runs for the fourth wicket while Shaheen Shah Afridi took all three wickets for Pakistan.
It should be noted that in the series of five T20 matches, New Zealand has a decisive advantage of four-zero now.
