Nathan McCullum spins Pakistan out of Twenty20 series
Pakistan lost the Twenty20 series against New Zealand at Seddon Park, Hamilton. This was the second of the three matches to be played. New Zealand won both the matches comfortably and now the third match is just a dead rubber. The track assisted the spin
bowlers and Nathan McCullum’s splendid spell helped http://www.senore.com/Cricket/New-Zealand-c754 to restrict Pakistan to 146 while the target was 186.
New Zealand started their innings after Pakistan won the toss and opted to field. Jesse Ryder was the first player to get dismissed on the very first ball of the match by Abdul Razzaq. After his removal, James Franklin was promoted up the order to get the
innings started and right hand/left hand combination got going. With the partnership with Guptill, the pair scored 91 runs in 11.2 overs with a healthy strike rate before Guptill got out to Saeed Ajmal. Everyone in the top order for New Zealand scored quick
cameos and thrashed Pakistan’s well reputed bowling attack.
Ross http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Peter-McGlashan-c2178 in particular were severe on the fast bowlers, hitting Shoaib Akhtar and Umar Gul out of the park at several occasions.
Both the players managed to score super quick and their strike rates were more than 200. http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 bowlers looked baffled under the lights with the continuous hitting. New Zealand ended their innings after scoring 185 runs at the expense of 7 wickets with 9.25
runs per over.
Pakistan started their innings with Muhammad Hafeez and Shahid Afridi. Hafeez scored quickly but http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Mills-c76321 and the next ball, he missed a simple full toss that crashed
his timber. A tame dismissal in the end, for the captain. Ahmed Shehzad was the next man in and he played couple of glorious shots like he did in the last Twenty20 and then got out. He was caught by Scott Styris at deep extra cover after running few paces
to his right, off the bowling of Ian http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Butler-c48850.
On the first ball of the next over Hafeez got run out. Umar Akmal played a cut shot wide of deep point, the pair took the single and Umar called for the second run. The second run was suicidal as Umar sent Hafeez back but he was short of the crease and was
judged run out. Hafeez was playing very well and was the hope for Pakistan to sail their boat. Wickets started to tumble for Pakistan as Younis Khan was caught behind, continuing with his bad form. This was the time when McCullum started his magical spell
and bamboozled the Pakistan batsman with his spins. Pakistani players kept giving easy wickets to the bowlers who ended up earning man of the match award, for grabbing four wickets at the expense of 16 runs.
Umar Akmal resisted in the middle for his 26 runs. However, his rusty innings was not enough to save Pakistan from debacle. Abdul Razzaq hit two monstrous sixes and was hoping to repeat what he did against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/South-Africa-c757 but McCullum got him for 14. Pakistan
team tumbled for 146 runs in the allotted quota of 20 overs with one wicket in hand. Poor bowling and batting performance cost Pakistan this match and the series.
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