Last Update: April 15, 2023, 03:08 IST
Azam praised his bowling unit. (Image: Pakistan Cricket / Twitter)
Fakhar Zaman and Saim Ayub scored 47-47 and shared a 79-run partnership for the third wicket to bundle out Pakistan for 182 in 19.5 overs.
Pakistan celebrated captain Babar Azam’s 100th international match in the shortest format with a clinical 88-run victory in the first Twenty20 against New Zealand in Lahore on Friday.
Azam failed to score only nine runs, but Fakhar Zaman and Sam Ayub scored 47 each and shared a 79-run partnership for the third wicket to bundle out Pakistan for 182 in 19.5 overs.
Pacer Haris Rauf, one of five players to return after being rested in Pakistan’s last series against Afghanistan, took career-best figures of 4-18 as New Zealand were bowled out for 94 in 15.3 overs.
Left-arm spinner Imad Wasim ended with 2–2 in his only over – taking both his wickets in consecutive balls.
Mark Chapman scored 34 off 27 balls including four fours and a six while skipper Tom Latham scored 20 off 24 balls.
Rauf’s previous best T20 score of 4-22 also came against New Zealand in Sharjah in 2021.
Azam praised his bowling unit.
“The pitch was assisting the bowlers so it was a good batting performance to get that total and then our entire bowling unit was excellent,” said Azam, happy to have reached a personal milestone.
“I never expected this. I still remember the journey of starting out as a ball-boy on the side-lines,” said Azam of serving as a ball-boy during the 2007 series against South Africa. Remember, and it’s a great honor to be here now.”
Latham said that his team was not able to adapt to different conditions.
Latham, who is struggling with the absence of top eight players due to the Indian Premier League, said, “We have not adapted to the conditions too early.”
“On that surface, the score was slightly above-par. We didn’t have a partnership with the bat.”
Earlier, Zaman and Ayub won the toss and batted first to recover Pakistan from a bad start.
Pakistan had both their openers, Mohammad Rizwan leg before eight, and then Azam bowled, dismissing fast bowler Adam Milne for just 30 runs in the fifth over.
In the tenth over, Ayub increased the pace by hitting two fours each off Milne and Ben Lister, before he and Zaman hit spinner Ish Sodhi for a six each.
Zaman hit four fours and two sixes in his 34-ball knock, while Ayub’s 28-ball knock was studded with two sixes and six fours.
Ayub was run out for the second run before Zaman was caught by Sodhi.
Faheem Ashraf scored 22 off 16 balls while Wasim scored 16 off 13 balls to help Pakistan add 47 runs in the last five overs.
New Zealand fast bowler Matt Henry took a hat-trick to add to his figures of 3-32.
Henry dismissed Shadab Khan (five) and Iftikhar Ahmed (0) in the last two balls of his third over and then Shaheen Shah Afridi in the first ball of the fourth over.
Lister had figures of 2-30 while Milne finished with 2-51.
The remaining four matches are in Lahore on April 15 and 17 and Rawalpindi on April 20 and 24.
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(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed)
