Pakistan avoided a whitewash in the T20I series against New Zealand, beating New Zealand by 42 runs in the final match.
In the last match of the series of five T20 matches, Pakistan batted first and set a target of 135 runs to New Zealand, in pursuit of which the entire New Zealand team collapsed for 92 runs in 17.2 overs.
For New Zealand, Glenn Phillips was outstanding with 26 runs off 22 balls and opener Finn Allen with 22 runs off 19 balls.
New Zealand’s Tim Seifert scored 19 and Will Young returned to the pavilion with 12 runs, while Rachin Ravindra and Mark Champman scored only 1 each.
On behalf of Pakistan, Iftikhar Ahmed took 3 wickets for 24 runs in his spell, Mohammad Nawaz and captain Shaheen Afridi took 2 wickets each while Zaman Khan and Osama Mir got one wicket each.
In the fifth match of the series played in Christchurch, Pakistan won the toss and decided to bat first, but the batting line once again disappointed the fans and the national team could only score 134 runs in the allotted 20 overs for the loss of 8 wickets.
In his first match, Pakistani opener Haseebullah returned to the pavilion after being caught out by Phillips off Sothi for no runs in the first over.
The highest run scorer for Pakistan was Mohammad Rizwan who scored 38 runs off 38 balls.
From Pakistan, Fakhar Zaman 33, Sahibzada Farhan 19 and Pakistan’s star batsman Babar Azam could score only 13 runs.
For New Zealand, Tim Southee took 2 wickets for 19 runs in 4 overs of his spell with a maiden over, while Matt Henry also managed to get 2 wickets for 30 runs.
New Zealand’s Lockie Ferguson and Ash Soddy also managed to send 2 players each to the pavilion.
4th T20 against New Zealand, announcement of playing eleven of the national team with one change
Three changes were made to the national team for today’s match in Christchurch, Saeem Ayub, Haris Rauf and Wasim Jr were rested while young wicketkeeper-batsman Haseebullah made his T20 international debut.
The Pakistani squad led by Shaheen Afridi includes wicketkeeper-batsman Mohammad Rizwan, Haseebullah, Babar Azam, Fakhar Zaman and Sahibzada Farhan.
The names of Iftikhar Ahmed, Muhammad Nawaz, Osama Mir, Abbas Afridi and Zaman Khan are also included in the playing XI.
It should be noted that the last match of the five-match T20 series between Pakistan and New Zealand is being played in Christchurch.
Earlier, New Zealand defeated Pakistan in four T20 matches in a row to take a decisive lead in the series.
