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LAHORE: Pakistan took a 2-0 lead in a five-match series after they whipped New Zealand by 38 runs in the second T20I here at the Gaddafi Stadium on Saturday night.
All format Captain Babar Azam smacked century to lift Pakistan total to 192 for four and then the home team bowlers led by Haris Rauf allowed New Zealand get 154 for seven in the given quota of overs.
The third game of the series will be played at the same venue on April 17 (Monday) and then the teams will travel to Rawalpindi to play the remaining two matches of the T20 series.
Babar Azam and his charges after mid-over follies hammered New Zealand for even better score from the opening game. Babar was at his best in hitting today. After Chris Gayle, Babar became the second in the list of most centuries in T20 cricket. Gayle has hit 22 centuries in 455 innings while Babar thumped his nine in 247 innings. He becomes the first captain ever to score three T20I hundreds and he has proved a point that he can up the bar at death and switch gears. He was at 65 at 17.1 overs and then ended up with 101 not out.
Babar Azam also levelled the world record for most T20 International wins as skipper on Saturday, as he won 42nd match as captain.
In reply, New Zealand was kept silent for most of the overs. As the required run-rate for the Kiwis was above nine, but they were allowed just close to six per over in the first six overs. When at 44, New Zealand lost its first wicket when Tom Latham was plumped before wickets by Shadab Khan and even the review backed the on field umpire’s decision.
Imad Wasim in the eighth over bowled Chad Bowes for 25 and Kiwis were now 52 for two. Bowes faced 22 balls and hit three boundaries.
Mark Chapman though came up with some big hits but the ask rate kept mounting and in the 12th over, New Zealand were three wickets down with 83 on board. It was Will Young who made nine runs and fell to Haris Rauf. New Zealand, however, managed 100 runs in 13.1 overs with Chapman and Maryl Mitchell holding the fort for the visiting team. Haris again struck for his second wicket and New Zealand’s fourth. Mitchell hit at long on went airborne and landed in Shadab’s hands.
Chapman on the other end kept his cool in getting runs but another wicket tumbled and it was Jamed Neesham, who became the third victim of Haris. Chapman completed his fourth half century in 30 balls but also saw another Kiwi fall to Haris again for the bowler’s fourth scalp. Ravindra (5) misjudged a slower from Haris and Fakhar Zaman did the rest at mid-wicket.
New Zealand at 131 for six needed another 62 runs in 16 balls with four wickets in hand and Chapman slowly kept the scoring moving and was the highest scorer from the visiting side with 65. Chapman remained not out only to see Cole McConchie being bowled out by Zaman Khan just two balls before the termination on New Zealand innings. Henry Sipley (1) was the other not out batter.
Haris who had four wickets in the first match took another four in the second game too for 27 runs. Imad Wasim, Zaman Khan and Shadab Khan took one wicket apiece.
The usual pair of Pakistan captain Babar Azam and wicketkeeper-batter Mohammad Rizwan opened the innings for team green and broke the shackles the time they settled down at the crease hitting boundary after a boundary. By the mandatory powerplay, Pakistan was at 59 and the partnership was kept developing between the two unabated.
Rizwan was the first to reach his half century, 24th of his career while his skipper Babar was then at 43 and Pakistan was at 98 in 10 overs. Rizwan completed his 50 in 33 balls and after playing another ball it proved to be an end to his innings and was also an end of a 99 runs partnership. Rizwan was back to the pavilion but not before hitting seven boundaries with one of them going for the maximum score.
Though a solid base was laid by the two openers but Matt Henry, who yesterday snared a hat-trick, was yet again on same feast after he took the wicket of Rizwan and bowled Fakhar Zaman first ball, but Saim Ayub did not let Henry fulfil his dream. Henry in the first game for his split overs hat-trick took the wickets of Shadab Khan, Iftijhar Ahmed and Shaheen Shah Afridi.
However, Saim became the prey of Rachin Ravindra for a duck in the following over and Pakistan which was 98 for no loss was then 102 for three in the 12th over. Few moments later, Imad Wasim became the fourth Pakistan wicket to fall at 105. But Babar kept the score ticking alongside Iftikhar Ahmed and he also brought up his 31st half century on 26 balls but he then went on to hit century, which was third of his T20 career.
However, after a lull in the process of runs aggregate, which was due to the fall of quick wickets, both Babar and Iftikhar approached the situation like an unbridled batters coming up with a spine-strengthening fifth wicket unbeaten stand of 87 runs. Babar for his century (101 not out) smacked 11 hits across the ropes and three over it while facing 58 balls while Iftikhar in his unconquered 33 that came off 19 balls timed one four and three sixes. The two batters developed 87 in nearly the last seven overs, which was 10 runs more than their opening match total of 182.
For New Zealand Matt Henry who took two wicket for 39 runs while James Neesham and Rachin Ravindra shared one wicket each for 48 and 22 runs respectively were the pick of their bowlers.
Earlier, Pakistan won the toss and elected to bat first. Pakistan kept the same winning eleven while New Zealand made two changes bringing in Cole McConchie and Henry Shipley in place of Adam Milne and Ish Sodhi.
