Pakistan 92 bits in 3 (Rizwan 45*, Lister 1-10) New Zealand 90 (Chapman 19, Afridi 3-13, Amir 2-13, Abrar 2-15, Shadab 2-15) with 7 wickets.
Two contrasting T20 innings were played on both sides of the border on Thursday evening. The ball seemed to hit the sweet spot of the bat almost every time. Another one was that the ball didn’t seem to find the center of the bat at all.
Shaheen and Amir throw a party
Pakistan won the toss and chose to bowl. They had the perfect combination of bowlers. Afridi and Amir bowling together can help them do that. As if that wasn’t enough, they had a fantastic defense to lead them. Shadab, positioned at backward point, dived low to his right to pocket Tim Seifert in the third over for Pakistan’s first wicket. Afridi slowed down and Seifert lost his bottom hand for a flick and gained the front edge. Shadab did the rest.
That was just the beginning.
Next, Amir, bowling for Pakistan for the first time since August 2020, repeated the same trick. He paced the fox Tim Robinson, who spooned the ball and covered it short of the toe end of his bat. A duck who made his debut two days ago. In his second game, he had just four.
Dean Foxcroft and Mark Chapman calmed things down briefly with a full six and a clipped four respectively. But Amir prevented New Zealand from gaining momentum when Foxcroft lofted it to mid-on for 13. New Zealand ended the powerplay on 35 for three and never recovered from the early blow.
Slow down and rush towards Pakistan
Abrar started off on a flat trajectory but found Iftikhar slowing down and throwing up and followed the lead. Chapman found good legs as he attempted a sweep in the top of the ninth.
Two balls later, James Neesham kept waiting for the 73 km/h ball to arrive, but it barely arrived, and when it did, Neesham swung but found midwicket.
Not to be outdone, Shadab changed his pace to go even faster on Michael Bracewell for the 12th restart. I did a bracewell reverse sweep, but the length wasn’t long enough. He found a short third as 49 for three became 59 for six.
Meanwhile, it was Ish Sodhi’s wicket that made Pakistanis laugh.
Shadab slowed down and bowled very short-legged, and Sodhi had already finished swinging the bat before the ball reached him. It turned slightly and hit his thigh pad. Pakistan appealed, which was rejected by referee Aleem Dar. But Babar overturned it on review and even the referee smiled wryly.
Rizwan takes Pakistan home
A lead edge entered Pakistan’s innings as soon as the second ball started when Saim Ayub, who was trying to get Ben Lister off his hip, ended up sending a return catch.
But Babar and Rizwan ensured that Pakistan did not go astray. Rizwan drove Lister’s first ball for four, and Babar soon hit Jacob Duffy for an offside boundary.
Just 14 came from the first three overs before both batsmen hit Ben Sears. Rizwan took him to six and four respectively while Babar also hit him for four.
However, Babar thought Bracewell was too ambitious and panicked when he approached his opponent.
But the target was not enough to test Pakistan and Rizwan ticked steadily at one end despite Usman Khan being beaten for seven. Irfan Khan joined Rizwan and Rizwan pushed the ball away before ending the game with a slog sweep. 4 to deep midwicket.
The result gave Pakistan a 1-0 lead in the five-match series, with the next match being played back in Rawalpindi on Sunday evening.
Himanshu Agrawal is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo.
