NZ vs PAK: New Zealand thrashed Pakistani bowlers, won the match by scoring the highest score.

 

In the first T20 played in Auckland, New Zealand defeated Pakistan (NZ vs PAK) by 46 runs and took a 1-0 lead in the five-match series. Playing first, New Zealand scored 226/8 in 20 overs, which is also the highest score of any team against Pakistan. In reply, the entire Pakistan team was all out after scoring 180 in 18 overs. New Zealand's Darryl Mitchell (61 off 27 balls) was chosen as the player of the match.

Pakistan won the toss and decided to bowl and on the very second ball of the first over, captain Shaheen Afridi dismissed Devon Conway (0). The second opener Finn Allen targeted Shaheen in the third over of the innings and scored 24 runs. The Kiwi team completed 50 runs in the fifth over and in the same over also lost the wicket of Allen, who was out after scoring 30 runs in 15 balls.

From here, captain Kane Williamson (57 off 42 balls) took charge of one end and Darryl Mitchell batted aggressively from the other end. Both of them added 78 runs for the third wicket. During this, New Zealand crossed the 100-run mark in the 11th over. Williamson completed his 18th T20 half-century in 40 balls and was out in the 12th over on the score of 128. Glenn Phillips scored 19 runs in 11 balls.

Darryl Mitchell played an inning of 61 runs in 27 balls with the help of four fours and four sixes and was out in the 17th over on the score of 183. Adam Milne contributed 10 runs. Mark Chapman played an inning of 26 runs in 11 balls and took his team to a big score. Tim Southee remained unbeaten after scoring 6 runs. For Pakistan, Shaheen Afridi and debutant Abbas Afridi took three wickets each.

While chasing the target, Pakistan got a fast start and Sam Ayub played an inning of 27 runs in 8 balls and was out on the score of 33 in the third over. Mohammad Rizwan also played some good shots but returned to the pavilion at the score of 63 after scoring 25 runs in 14 balls. Fakhar Zaman contributed 15 runs and Iftikhar Ahmed contributed 24 runs. Azam Khan could not do anything special and was out at the score of 159 in the 16th over after scoring 10 runs. Shaheen Afridi also got out in the same over without scoring any runs.

Babar Azam was scoring runs from one end amidst the continuous falling of wickets and he completed his half-century in 33 balls. Babar was also out in the 17th over on the score of 173 after scoring 57 runs in 35 balls and Pakistan's hopes of victory got a big blow. The tail batsmen could not last long and the team collapsed without playing the entire over. Aamir Jamal remained unbeaten after scoring 14 runs. Tim Southee took maximum four wickets for New Zealand. At the same time, Adam Milne and Ben Sears took two wickets each.