Pakistan trounce New Zealand in final Twenty20
Pakistan have trounced New Zealand by a massive margin of 103 runs in the third Twenty20 international match at AMI Stadium, Christchurch.
The visitors avoided a clean-sweep and finished the series with a consolation win. New Zealand had already won the first two T20 matches comprehensively to seal the series.
Going into the dead rubber, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 made two significant changes as they brought in the left-arm spinner Abdul Rehman in place of Saeed Ajmal, and the right-arm swing bowler Tanvir Ahmed replaced Shoaib Akhtar.
The touring team won the toss and elected to bat first on a beautiful batting wicket. Early on, the wicket was flat and there was no seam movement off the pitch to trouble the batsmen. The new-ball bowlers were not able to swing the white Kookaburra in the
air.
Pakistan was off to a flying start. Ahmed Shehzad and Mohammad Hafeez provided their team with an aggressive start as they mustered a scintillating 83-run opening partnership, conceding just 9 overs in the process.
Shehzad registered a breathtaking half-century off just 34 balls. Hafeez managed a decent score of 34 runs and provided his partner a valuable support. The batting side lost a couple of quick wickets in the middle overs which pegged the run-rate back.
But Abdul Razzaq’s late order blitz powered Pakistan to a mammoth 183 runs in their 20 overs. http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Razzaq-c84421 racked up 34 runs off just 11 deliveries, hitting three towering sixes.
While chasing, the Kiwi side completely failed and were bowled out for 80 runs in 15.5 overs. Remarkably, the first four batsmen for http://www.senore.com/Cricket/New-Zealand-c754 could not trouble the scorers. Apart from Scott Styris, who made 45 runs, every other player failed to make an
impression with the bat and posted single digit scores.
Abdur Razzaq wreaked havoc for the Kiwis, scalping brilliant figures of 3/13 in four incisive overs. http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Shahid-Afridi-c2482 scythed through the Kiwi middle order, finishing with 4/14 in his spell of 2.5 overs.
Pakistan’s superb all-round performance earned them a massive win over the home side. The victory will help their confidence in the upcoming Test series, which starts on 7 January.
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