Pakistan has had a disastrous tour of New Zealand so far, having lost all the matches in the ODI Series. Pakistan was ruthlessly whitewashed by the Kiwis in the One Day series and even in the first T20. But the Pakistan team has bounced back in the second T20 to register their first win of the tour.
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CLINICAL PERFORMANCE BY THE TOP ORDER
Batting first, the Pakistan top order went all guns blazing at the New Zealand bowlers and posted a grand total of 201. Everyone in Pakistan’s top order made runs to see the team getting a mammoth total. Babar Azam and Fakhar Zaman got stormy half centuries and jointly top-scored for the side. While opener Fakhar Zaman made 50 from just 28 balls, Babar Azam remained unbeaten on 50 from just 29 balls.
THIS IS A UNIQUE RECORD
Pakistan on the way to this win has created a unique record. This is for the first time ever in a T20 game that the top 4 batsmen scored in excess of 40. This is one of its only kind instances!
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Ahmad Shehzad and Sarfraz Ahmad chipped in with valuable knocks of 41 and 44 respectively to capitalize on the great start the team got.
PERFECT BOWLING PERFORMANCES
In response to 201 posted by Pakistan, the hosts fell short of 48 runs and tasted their first defeat in the ongoing series. New Zealand could only manage 153 before they were bowled out in the 19th over.
Faheem Ashraf was the pick of the bowlers having scalped 3 wickets while Mohamad Amir and Shadab Khan picked 2 wickets each. Faheem Ashraf picked up 3 wickets for just 22. Hasan Ali, Pakistan’s premier bowler, however, could only manage one wicket.
For the Kiwis, Santner top scored having played a knock of 37 but that was never going to be enough to surpass the grand total that the Pakistani batsmen had set. The New Zealand top order failed miserably and Pakistan’s bowling attack was all over them.
