Image Credit- AFP
On both sides of the border, two different T20 innings were played on Thursday night. one in which the ball appeared to nearly always land in the bat’s sweet spot. The other was where it seemed the ball never made it to the middle of the bat.
T20 batting records were broken in Delhi during an IPL match between the Delhi Capitals and Sunrisers Hyderabad. New Zealand folded for ninety in Rawalpindi, forty-two less than Sunrisers’ sixes in just sixes.
A ground that was ideal for bowlers was exploited by Pakistan’s fast bowlers and spinners. Pakistan’s founder of the party, Shaheen Shah Afridi, ended with three for thirteen. Shadab Khan, Abrar Ahmed, and comeback man Mohammad Amir each took two wickets.
After winning the toss, Pakistan decided to bowl. Because Afridi and Amir bowled in tandem, they had the ideal combination of bowlers. And if that wasn’t enough, they were sparked by an outstanding fielding performance. In the third over, Shadab, positioned at backward point, made a low diving move to his right to bag Tim Seifert, giving Pakistan their first wicket. Seifert lost his bottom hand and gained a leading edge when Afridi lowered his tempo during his effort to flick. That was left to Shadab.
Amir, bowling for Pakistan for the first time since August 2020, duplicated the trick in the following over. Tim Robinson was foxed by him, and he ended up spooning the ball to short cover off the bat’s toe end. Two days ago, a duck made its debut. In his second game, just four.
Dean Foxcroft and Mark Chapman, with a pulled six and a clipped four, respectively, temporarily defused the situation. However, Amir stopped any momentum from building for New Zealand when he had Foxcroft lofting to mid-off for 13. After taking three wickets in the powerplay, New Zealand was never able to recover from the early blows.
Spin was first introduced by Babar Azam just after the powerplay. For seven overs in a row, he bowled Shadab, Abrar, and occasional off-spinner Iftikhar Ahmed. Pakistan took three wickets during that time, while New Zealand only scored 34 runs.
As early as the second ball of Pakistan’s innings, the leading edge was introduced when Saim Ayub attempted to spin Ben Lister off his hips but instead sent a return catch.
However, Babar and Rizwan made sure Pakistan stayed on course. Shortly after, Babar punched Jacob Duffy to the off-side boundary, and Rizwan drove Lister’s opening delivery for four.
Though Rizwan lost Usman Khan for seven, he continued to tick away slowly at one end of the mark, which wasn’t really enough to test Pakistan. After pushing the ball around, Irfan Khan joined Rizwan, who then completed the game with a slog sweep for four to deep midwicket.
Pakistan now leads the five-match series 1-0 as a result of the outcome; the next match will take place Sunday night in Rawalpindi.