Amir was recalled to the worldwide setup for the tour after serving a five-year ban for his involvement in the 2010 spot-fixing scandal.
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Pakistan on Friday beat New Zealand by 16 runs in first T20 game of thee-match series against Pakistan at Auckland’s Eden Garden cricket stadium.
The hosts’ batsmen set New Zealand records during the 2-0 defeat of Sri Lanka last week, but Pakistan have not enjoyed good T20 form in recent months.
“That was a great start, especially in batting”, Afridi said.
New Zealand won the toss and chose to put Pakistan in to batting.
For the tourists, Wahab Riaz bagged three wickets while Afridi and Umar Gul claimed two wickets each. “It is hard to exactly tell how the whole thing is going to come up, but my experience says that he is a smart kid”, he said.
“I must credit fast bowlers”.
While New Zealand are coming into the game on the backs of a T20 series win over Sri Lanka while Pakistan tasted defeat in their T20 series against England in the UAE.
The tainted pacer made a return to the national scenario after being included in the side’s limited overs series squad against New Zealand. Pakistan will conclude its New Zealand trip on January 31. “If they can play good cricket – hats off to them”, he added. “No doubt, they are playing wonderful cricket at the moment”, he said. “But it is going to be a different bowling challenge against Pakistan as we have much better bowling attack than Sri Lanka”, Riaz said in an audio issued by Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Wednesday.
Kane Williamson will lead the Kiwis in the T20s. “We all know the style they are playing with is awesome to see”. All-rounder Sohaib Maqsood and Anwar Ali and Mohammad Rizwan will also have important roles to play as well. Umar was handed the one-match suspension last week for a clothing breach in Pakistan’s domestic first-class tournament, the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy.
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New Zealand: (from) Kane Williamson (c), Martin Guptill, Colin Munro, Corey Anderson, Tom Latham, Grant Elliott, Luke Ronchi, Mitchell Santner, Todd Astle, Mitch McClenaghan, Adam Milne, Matt Henry, Trent Boult. Captain Shahid Afridi and Umar Akmal also played cameos of 23 and 24 respectively whereas Imad Wasim also scored 19 as Pakistan ended on 171/8 in 20 overs.
