Auckland: As expected New Zealand has won first match of five match T-20 series against Pakistan by 46 runs.
Chasing the huge target of 227 runs whole of the Pakistan team bowled out at 180 runs in the 18th over of the match.
New Zealand has taken lead over Pakistan in the five-match T-20 series.
Four of the Pakistani players could not crossed the double digits while Baber Azam scored half century but he lost his wicket at a score of 57 runs.
Sayem Ayub, Muhammad Rizwan and Iftakhar Ahmed other prominent figures who scored 27, 25 and 24 runs respectively.
From New Zealand side Tim Southee picked four wickets, Adam Milne, Ben Sears took 2 wickets each while Ish Sodhi got one wicket.
It is pertinent to mention here that Pakistan has won the toss and elected to bowl first against New Zealand while decision appeared to be bad.
Playing first New Zealand set a huge target of 227 runs for Pakistan in the first match of the T20I series at Eden Park today (Friday).
Daryl Mitchell and Kane Williamson were New Zealand’s best performers with the bat as the two scored 57 and 61 runs respectively.
Williamson was given a life at 11 as he was dropped by Babar Azam, the Kiwi skipper took full advantage of the chance and ended up scoring a fantastic half-century.
He managed to provide room for other players like Finn Allen (35 off 15) and Mitchell (61 off 27) who breathe fire with their bat and scored runs with the strike rates of 233 and 255 respectively.
Down the order, Mark Chapman did his job and scored another quick 26 off just 11 deliveries with two fours and as many sixes.
All of Pakistan’s bowlers were taken to the cleaners, with just Abbas Afridi and Haris Rauf bowling with a decent economy of 8.50 each.
Skipper Shaheen Afridi, who provided an excellent start with a wicket in the first over, failed to capitalise on that and ended up conceding 46 runs while taking three wickets.
Aamer Jamal conceded 56 while Usama Mir was bashed for 51 runs in four overs.
Playing XI
Pakistan: Mohammad Rizwan, Saim Ayub, Babar Azam, Fakhar Zaman, Iftikhar Ahmed, Azam Khan (wk), Aamir Jamal, Usama Mir (Debut), Shaheen Afridi (c), Abbas Afridi (Debut), Haris Rauf
New Zealand: Finn Allen, Devon Conway (wk), Kane Williamson (c), Daryl Mitchell, Glenn Phillips, Mark Chapman, Adam Milne, Matthew Henry, Tim Southee, Ish Sodhi, Ben Sears
