Big-hitting New Zealand crush Pakistan by five wickets for 2-0 lead

Dunedin, New Zealand: New Zealand´s openers went on a six-hitting blitz on Tuesday to thrash Pakistan by five wickets and go 2-0 up in their Twenty20 series.

The home side reached 137-5 with 11 balls to spare in Dunedin to take control of the five-match series after Pakistan posted 135-9 off 15 overs in a rain-reduced second match. New Zealand´s highlight was a ferocious opening stand between Tim Seifert and Finn Allen in which seven of the first eight scoring shots were sixes.

Remarkably, Seifert played out a maiden off Shaheen Shah Afridi´s opening over before Allen cleared the small University Oval boundary three times in the second over, bowled by Mohammad Ali.

Seifert then smashed 26 off Afridi´s second over, including four sixes. Seifert, who top-scored with 44 in the nine-wicket win in Christchurch on Sunday, departed on 45 off 22 balls. Allen fell soon afterwards for 38 off 16, with the openers hammering five sixes each. White-ball specialist Allen said both batsmen are naturally big-hitters and took a simple mindset into the run chase.

“We just looked to be positive, try and get ahead of the chase early and make it easy for our middle order to finish it off,” said Allen, who was confident they could run down the target. Agha, Pakistan’s captain, then counterattacked to give the visitors’ innings some impetus, but Bracewell’s introduction of Sodhi crippled them. Irfan Khan’s leading edge off Sodhi saw him holing out at backward point, and two balls later, Khushdil was walking back after being trapped in front of the stumps by the wristspinner.

Agha’s 28-ball 46 threatened New Zealand in the middle overs, but when he fell in the tenth over to Sears in his second spell, Pakistan lost steam. However, Shadab Khan’s 14-ball 26, and Shaheen Shah Afridi’s 14-ball 22, added some late impetus to lift the visitors to 135 for 9 in 15 overs. James Neesham, playing his first T20I in nine months, finished with 2 for 26, both wickets coming in the 13th over.

“It´s kind of hard to assess in a 15-over game but defending out here is pretty tough. Those are small boundaries so the ball tends to fly a bit here, so I think maybe 170 would have been competitive.”

Four New Zealand wickets fell in the space of four overs midway through the chase before Mitch Hay´s unbeaten 21 made the outcome safe. Earlier, captain Salman Agha top-scored with 46 off 28 balls, launching a recovery after Pakistan were sent in and lost opener Hasan Nawaz without scoring for the second time in the series.

They were 19-2 in the fourth over before the skipper embarked on a knock that featured four fours and three sixes. Shadab Khan was aggressive in the middle order with 26 off 14 balls and Afridi was not-out 22 off 14.

Four New Zealand bowlers took two wickets, including seamer Ben Sears and all-rounder Jimmy Neesham, who were both recalled, in place of Tim Robinson and Kyle Jamieson. New Zealand can wrap up the series if victorious in game three in Auckland on Friday.