O’Rourke delighted with his performance

LAHORE: New Zealand’s rookie pacer William O’Rourke was happy with the way he played a leading role in his team’s victory over Pakistan in the fourth T20I here at the Gaddafi Stadium on Thursday night.

“T20 is a funny game. Sometime you are on and sometime you not, and today was my day. I got a couple of wickets here and there and that pushed my momentum and that continued after that,” O’Rourke told reporters after New Zealand’s second win in the series which took them 2-1 up.

The 21-year-old got 3-27 in his quota of four overs, his best T20I figures in the second game of his career to restrict Pakistan to 174-8 while chasing 179. He removed Saim Ayub and Babar Azam before picking up the wicket of Iftikhar Ahmed at a crucial stage to dent Pakistan’s chase.

“When you hit the wicket hard it can go both ways, it can go up and can go down a little bit. I was running hard, trying to hit the wicket hard,” he said. Asked what was his special plan for Babar and Iftikhar, O’Rourke said that he kept using change of pace and was lucky enough to get those wickets.