Pakistan Dominated New Zealand In The First T20I; Led By Afridi And Amir
Pakistan displayed a commanding performance against New Zealand in a recent T20 match, with Shaheen Shah Afridi and Mohammad Amir leading the charge.
After being asked to bat first, New Zealand, playing with a second-string team without several of their best players, managed just ninety points.
New Zealand 90 (Chapman 19, Afridi 3-13, Amir 2-13, Abrar 2-15, Shadab 2-15) was defeated by Pakistan 92 for 3 (Rizwan 45*, Lister 1-10) by seven wickets.
On both sides of the border, two different T20 innings were played on Thursday night. one in which the ball appeared to nearly always land in the bat’s sweet spot. The other was where it seemed the ball never made it to the middle of the bat.
T20 batting records were broken in Delhi during an IPL match between the Delhi Capitals and Sunrisers Hyderabad. New Zealand folded for ninety in Rawalpindi, forty-two less than Sunrisers’ sixes in just sixes. In Rawalpindi, the ball halted, clutched, or turned off the pitch as Pakistan’s spinners and quick bowlers went crazy on a pitch that was ideal for bowlers. Pakistan’s founder of the party, Shaheen Shah Afridi, ended with three for thirteen. Shadab Khan, Abrar Ahmed, and comeback man Mohammad Amir each took two wickets.
After that, with 45 not out in 34 balls, Mohammad Rizwan guided Pakistan’s chase and thrashed New Zealand with 47 balls and seven wickets remaining.
Afridi And Amir Destroyed New Zealand
After winning the toss, Pakistan decided to bowl. Because Afridi and Amir bowled in tandem, they had the ideal combination of bowlers. And if that wasn’t enough, they were sparked by an outstanding fielding performance. In the third over, Shadab, positioned at backward point, made a low diving move to his right to bag Tim Seifert, giving Pakistan their first wicket. Seifert lost his bottom hand and gained a leading edge when Afridi lowered his tempo during his effort to flick. That was left to Shadab.
Amir, bowling for Pakistan for the first time since August 2020, duplicated the trick in the following over. Tim Robinson was foxed by him, and he ended up spooning the ball to short cover off the bat’s toe end. Two days ago, a duck made its debut. In his second game, just four.
Dean Foxcroft and Mark Chapman, with a pulled six and a clipped four, respectively, temporarily defused the situation. However, Amir stopped any momentum from building for New Zealand when he had Foxcroft lofting to mid-off for 13. After taking three wickets in the powerplay, New Zealand was never able to recover from the early blows.
Spinners Into The Action
Immediately following the powerplay, Babar Azam added spin because he could see the surface was moving slowly. For seven overs in a row, he bowled Shadab, Abrar, and occasional off-spinner Iftikhar Ahmed. Pakistan took three wickets during that time, while New Zealand only scored 34 runs.
Abrar had been moving on a flat trajectory at first, but he saw Iftikhar slow down and throw it up, so he followed suit. In the ninth over, Chapman attempted a sweep and found fine leg.
James Neesham waited for a delivery that was travelling at 73 kph for two balls. The delivery almost came but Neesham swung and found midwicket.
Shadab, determined not to fall behind, changed gears and moved much faster to Michael Bracewell to begin the twelfth over. Bracewell swept in reverse, but the length was insufficiently full. 49 for 3 became 59 for 6, and he found himself short third.
Amidst all of that, Ish Sodhi’s wicket caused the Pakistanis to chuckle.
Shadab slow-bowled, bowling very short on leg, so that before the ball reached Sodhi, he had already completed his bat swing. It twisted slightly and struck him on the thigh pad. Umpire Aleem Dar rejected Pakistan’s appeal. However, Babar examined and managed to have it reversed, making even the umpire chuckle.
Rizwan Secured The Run Chase
As early as the second ball of Pakistan’s innings, the leading edge was introduced when Saim Ayub attempted to spin Ben Lister off his hips but instead sent a return catch.
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However, Babar and Rizwan made sure Pakistan stayed on course. Shortly after, Babar punched Jacob Duffy to the off-side boundary, and Rizwan drove Lister’s opening delivery for four. Ben Sears was hammered by both batsmen after just 14 runs were scored in the first three overs. Babar also flicked him for four, while Rizwan pulled and drove him for six and four, respectively.
However, when Bracewell attempted to be overly ambitious and went down the same path as his counterpart, Babar was stumped. Though Rizwan lost Usman Khan for seven, he continued to tick away slowly at one end of the mark, which wasn’t really enough to test Pakistan. After pushing the ball around, Irfan Khan joined Rizwan, who then completed the game with a slog sweep for four to deep midwicket.
Pakistan now leads the five-match series 1-0 as a result of the outcome; the next match will take place Sunday night in Rawalpindi.
Azam Khan’s Calf Muscle Strain Has Forced Him Out Of The NZ T20I Series
Azam Khan, the wicketkeeper-battler for Pakistan, has sustained a grade one tear in his right calf muscle, ruling him out of the current five-match Twenty20 International series against New Zealand. Ten days of rest were recommended for Azam after radiological results verified the injury.
It has been suggested that the wicketkeeper-batter take ten days off.
As stated in a PCB release, Azam will now report to the National Cricket Academy in Lahore, where he will “commence his rehabilitation process under the supervision of the PCB medical panel” after departing from the Pakistan team. The statement also stated that Azam’s first training session prior to Thursday’s opening Twenty20 International, which was lost after just two balls, was when the issue was initially identified.
Azam has appeared in eight Twenty20 Internationals so far; the most recent match took place in January and involved New Zealand. However, despite having a strong hitting reputation, Azam has only scored 29 runs in seven innings, with the highest score being ten. For instance, in the most recent PSL, Azam scored just 226 runs for Islamabad United in ten innings, but with a high strike rate of 171. The event was won by United.
Due to his reputation and his performance in the most recent CPL, where he amassed 224 runs in 12 innings at a strike rate of 155.55 for the Guyana Amazon Warriors, the champion team, he is a strong contender to be included in Pakistan’s squad for the T20 World Cup, which will be held in the Caribbean and the United States in June. Mohammad Amir and Imad Wasim, two players with CPL experience who were previously out of the picture, are back in the mix for Pakistan.
Pakistan will play seven more matches before the World Cup, three in Ireland and four in England, following the conclusion of their series against New Zealand on April 27.
