Pakistan’s effort was special considering the fact that they had no warm-up game to get used to the conditions in New Zealand. New Zealand easily win the match against the visitors and are on level in this series. Ahmed Shehzad, who punched one past Adam Milne in the third over for his first boundary, fell in the following over when he mistimed a slog off Corey Anderson and handed a catch to Kane Williamson at mid-off.
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The hosts, meanwhile, will aim to bounce back to stay alive in the series, and in order to do so, they need to show better application in all departments. With Corey Anderson, Grant Elliott, Mitchell Santner and Luke Ronchi all falling for single figures and within 18 runs of each other at Auckland, the batsmen will have a lot to prove. Trent Boult, the fast bowling spearhead, conceded in excess of 10 runs-an-over, while Adam Milne, despite picking up four wickets, had an expensive outing too. Within the same over, Guptill scored his 9th T20I fifty.
A double-wicket maiden from Afridi in the 14th swung momentum, while his 23 off eight balls with the bat hinted at the 35-year-old’s potency. Both Afridi and Wasim demonstrated in the previous match that the spinners can more than hold their own in these conditions. That cameo gave them some impetus.
Limited-overs pitches in Hamilton have generally been conducive to high scores.
Weather report: It is cloudy at Hamilton and rain is expected later.
Pakistan, after traveling more than 8,100 miles to New Zealand, shocked the home side – who had just swept a pair of T20 matches from visiting Sri Lanka earlier this month – building an impressive first-innings total of 171, then taking all 10 wickets in the full 20 overs to claim a definitive 16-run victory.
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Pakistan: Shahid Afridi (capt), Ahmed Shehzad, Mohammad Hafeez, Sohaib Maqsood, Shoaib Malik, Umar Akmal, Iftikhar Ahmed, Imad Wasim, Anwar Ali, Aamer Yamin, Sarfraz Ahmed (wk), Wahab Riaz, Umar Gul, Mohammad Rizwan, Saad Nasim, Mohammad Amir.
