Pakistan beat New Zealand by two runs in Twenty20 thriller

[Ali Tariq]

October 31, 2018

New Zealand's Ajaz Patel (2L) celebrates with teammates after dismissing Pakistan's Sahibzada Farhan. —AFP

Pakistan celebrates. —AFP

Pakistan cricketer Mohammed Hafeez (R) is watched by New Zealand's wicketkeeper Tim Seifert as he plays a shot. —AFP

New Zealand's Ajaz Patel (2L) celebrates with teammates after dismissing Pakistan's Sahibzada Farhan. —AFP

Pakistan celebrates. —AFP

Pakistan cricketer Mohammed Hafeez (R) is watched by New Zealand's wicketkeeper Tim Seifert as he plays a shot. —AFP

New Zealand's Ajaz Patel (2L) celebrates with teammates after dismissing Pakistan's Sahibzada Farhan. —AFP


Pakistan beat New Zealand by two runs in the first Twenty20 international in a last over thriller in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday to take a 1-0 lead in the three-match series.

New Zealand needed a six off the last ball to tie the match but managed a boundary to finish at 146-6 in 20 overs.

Pakistan's best bowler was Hasan Ali who finished with 3-35.

Pakistan made 148-6 with Mohammad Hafeez (45), Sarfraz Ahmed (34) and Asif Ali (24) main run getters after they won the toss and batted.

Adam Milne was the best New Zealand bowler with 2-28.

The remaining two matches will be played in Dubai on Friday and Sunday.

Teams
Pakistan: Sarfraz Ahmed (captain), Mohammad Hafeez, Sahibzada Farhan, Babar Azam, Shoaib Malik, Asif Ali, Shadab Khan, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Hasan Ali, Imad Wasim, Faheem Ashraf

New Zealand: Kane Williamson (captain), Corey Anderson, Colin de Grandhomme, Adam Milne, Colin Munro, Ajaz Patel, Glenn Phillips, Tim Seifert, Ish Sodhi, Tim Southee, Ross Taylor

Another day, another win...

 

[Chakar The Great]

Good game.

 

[touela]

Indeed a Good game. But being nr 1 in T20I means you have to perform in all departements.... batting have been lacking for a while now. 150-160 is a minimum. You Cannot expect the bowlers to save us everytime

 

[BRAVO_]

it was a close fight ........... a good game

 

[Viking 63]

Keeping 2019 world cup in mind, honestly this Pakistan Batting line up is a joke. They don't stand a chance against top teams my prediction is that they will not even make it to Quarter finals!!

 

[CIS-TRANS]

Keeping 2019 world cup in mind, honestly this Pakistan Batting line up is a joke. They don't stand a chance against top teams my prediction is that they will not even make it to Quarter finals!!

No quarter finals in 2019 WC, top 4 teams will directly qualify for semis but I agree with you also I don't understand why they are preferring shaheen afridi over various good bowlers when he always have worst economy rate in almost every match.Too much favoritism by Micky Arther and Azher Mehmood.

 

[RIP Pak LAW]

Keeping 2019 world cup in mind, honestly this Pakistan Batting line up is a joke. They don't stand a chance against top teams my prediction is that they will not even make it to Quarter finals!!

Pakistan's ODI record is dismal while we are no 1 side in 20-20 and very good Test side as well.

@ topic

NZ is better team than Australia at the moment which was depicted in yesterday's match. Without Smith and Warner, Australian side is really average.

 

[Men in Green]

We were lucky this time.
Pakistan team is dumb no fire power at all. we will stand no chance against team like India.

 

[AZADPAKISTAN2009]

Playing in empty stadiums in UAE has taken off the interest in cricket
UAE series does not impresses me that much lately

Without crowd , and fans it does not feels same

 

[LeGenD]

Impressive.

New Zealand is a strong team but it perform better in 50 overs match.

 

[dexter]

 

[Pak-Canuck]

Great game indeed, but the last 4 games now it's been undoubtedly our bowlers who have won us the games. 150ish scores on those UAE wickets is a joke and way below par, our batting really needs to pick it up now, I think we really dodged a bullet last game.

Hopefully we win today and that would make 11 successive T-20 series victories for Pak and Sarfraz, but more importantly hopefully we can get the right batting combo for the 2019wc!