HAMILTON: New Zealand won the Twenty20 series against Pakistan. New Zealand secured the series by winning the second match of three Twenty20s.
They won yesterday’s match by nine wickets. Batting first, Pakistan scored 163 for six. Mohammad Hafeez, 40, was unbeaten on 99 off 57 balls with five sixes and 10 fours.
Batting in reply, New Zealand were bowled out by opener and wicketkeeper Tim Seifert (84 off 63 balls with three sixes and eight fours) and skipper Kane Williamson (57 off 42 balls with one six and eight fours). New Zealand won the toss and elected to field. They lost Martin Guptill (21 off 11 balls, including two sixes).
Tim Southee, who took four wickets for 21 runs in four overs, smashed Pakistan. Southee is also the star of the match. James Neesham and Ish Sodhi took one wicket each. Only opener and wicketkeeper Mohammad Rizwan (22 off 20 balls), Khushdil Shah (14 off 20 balls) and Imad Wasim (10 not out off 5 balls) were the only batsmen to reach the double. Southee started the chase with opener Hyder Ali (eight) in Williamson’s hand. In the same over, Abdullah Shafiq (0) caught Southee.
Captain Shadab Khan (four) caught Southee off Neesham’s ball. Southee expelled Rizwan and Fahim Ashraf (four). Rizwan was dismissed by Seifert and Ashraf by Williamson. Khushdil Shah and Hafeez put on 50 off 39 balls to give Pakistan total hope. Hafeez holds the record for being the oldest player to score a century in Twenty20 Internationals. Hafeez was dismissed by the New Zealand bowlers but was denied a chance to bat. After 16 overs, Pakistan were 119 for five. With the bowlers controlling in the final overs, the run-scoring became difficult. Nine runs scored in the 17th over by Trent Bolt. Southee scored six runs in the next over. One wicket fell in the same over. Bolt scored 11 runs in the 19th over, including two fours. Only two off the first three balls of the final over were bowled by Kyle Jamison. Hafeez hit the next two balls for a six and the last ball was bowled. Hafeez hit a half-century off 37 balls. This is Hafeez’s highest score in Twenty20.
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