Pakistan defeated New Zealand by 88 runs in the first T20 International played between Pakistan and New Zealand in Lahore.
The New Zealand team could only score 94 runs in response to Pakistan’s target of 182 runs.
Pakistan captain Babar Azam, who is playing his 100th T20 International, won the toss and decided to bat first. He had a target of 180 runs in mind, which he had told before the match.
Babar Azam is the third player to play 100 T20 Internationals for Pakistan.
Before him, former captain Shoaib Malik has represented Pakistan in 124 and Mohammad Hafeez in 119 international T20 matches.
When the pair of Muhammad Rizwan and Babar Azam entered the field after not being included in the T20 series against Afghanistan, the fans expected a big start from them once again but it did not happen.
When Pakistan reached the total of 14, Mohammad Rizwan returned to the pavilion and shortly after him, Babar Azam also lost his wicket.
After losing the wickets of the openers at the score of 30, Fakhar Zaman and Saeem Ayub took over Pakistan’s innings and played aggressively to take Pakistan’s score to 100 in 11 overs.
Both Saeem Ayub and Fakhar Zaman scored 47 and 47 runs, but Saeem scored these runs in 28 balls while Fakhar Zaman scored in 33 balls.
No batsman from Pakistan could score a half-century but thanks to some aggressive shots by Imad Wasim and Faheem Ashraf, the Pakistani team set New Zealand a target of 182 runs.
Another important aspect of Pakistan’s innings was that the entire team could not play the allotted 20 overs and returned to the pavilion one ball earlier.
New Zealand’s Matt Henry completed his hat-trick by dismissing Shadab Khan, Iftikhar Ahmed on the fifth and sixth balls of the thirteenth over and Shaheen Afridi on the first ball of the nineteenth over.
For New Zealand, Matt Henry took three wickets while Adam Millan and Ben Lister took two wickets each.
For this match, Pakistan made rookie players Saim Ayub and Zaman Khan a part of the team.
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On the other hand, the New Zealand team, which toured Pakistan without many of its key players, started its innings and faced the lightning-fast bowling of Shaheen Afridi, Zaman Khan and Haris Rauf.
Skipper Tom Latham and Chad Bowes started to chase the target cautiously and Chad Bowes was lbw off Zaman Khan for one run.
When Will Young came to the crease to support Tom Latham, he was bowled by Shaheen Afridi at a total score of 13.
Daryl Mitchell, the batsman who came after him, tried to play openly but was caught out by Faheem Ashraf after hitting only two fours.
The Kiwi team could only score 30 runs in six overs of the power play while Pakistan scored 52 runs in the power play overs of their innings.
At the end of ten overs, the New Zealand team could score only 54 runs at an average of less than six runs, and thus Pakistan’s grip on the match became evident.
Captain Latham could only score 20 runs, but Mark Chapman and James Neesham must have played a few long shots while putting pressure on the Pakistani bowlers, but their shots could not change the result of the match and Pakistan restricted New Zealand to 94 runs. Won the match by 88 runs.
For Pakistan, Haris Rauf took four wickets and Imad Wasim took two wickets. The next match of the series will be played in Lahore on Saturday night.