BAY OVAL (MOUNT MAUNGANUI): Kiwis won the 5-match series 3-1 beating Green Shirts by 115 runs (their worst T20I defeat ever) here Sunday (23rd March, 2025).
Pakistan, after winning the toss opted to field first. New Zealand scored 220 runs for the loss of six wickets in the available 20 overs. But Green Shirts badly failed to chase the target managing to score only 105 runs in the 17th over. Four Pakistani scalps were hunted by Kiwi seamer Jacob Duffy by yielding only 20 runs.
Zak Foulkes sent three Pakistani batters back to pavilion who made only 25 runs. Whereas, Kiwi Finn Allen made 50 taking 20 deliveries and Tim Seifert’s bat yielded 44 runs off 22 balls. The only man in green to score in double figures was Irfan Khan with 24. It may be recalled that 9 years ago Pakistan had suffered a 95-run defeat against NZ in Wellington.
Pakistan had beaten New Zealand by 9 wickets in the 3rd T20I, played at Auckland’s Eden Park on 21st March, with the help of 23-year-old opener’s ton off 44 balls (fastest ever by any Green Shirt in a T20I). In Christchurch and Dunedin, Hasan Nawaz went back to the pavilion sans scoring a single run.
At Auckland, Hasan Nawaz’s bat yielded 105 and he remained not out. Earlier, New Zealand had given a target of 204 runs that Green Shirts achieved in sixteen overs. But the euphoria did not last long.
Squads:
Green Shirts: Mohammad Haris, Hasan Nawaz, Salman Agha (capt), Irfan Khan, Shadab Khan, Abdul Samad, Khushdil Shah, Abbas Afridi, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Haris Rauf, Abrar Ahmed.
Kiwis: Tim Seifert, Finn Allen, Mark Chapman, Daryl Mitchell, James Neesham, Mitchell Hay, Michael Bracewell (capt), Ish Sodhi, Zak Foulkes, Jacob Duffy, Will O’Rourke.
Umpires: Chris Brown (NZL), Wayne Knights (NZL)
TV umpire: Kim Cotton (NZL)
Match referee: Jeff Crowe (NZL)
Fifth T20I between Pakistan and New Zealand Cricket Teams is scheduled to be played in Wellington on Wednesday (26th March, 2025).
Newspakistan.tv
