In the first T20I of the five-match series, which took place at Eden Park on Friday, New Zealand beat Pakistan by 46 runs thanks to great games from Kane Williamson, Daryl Mitchell, and Tim Southee.
Daryl Mitchell and captain Kane Williamson both scored fifty runs, which helped New Zealand score a big score. Pakistan looked like they were on track to beat the score for a short time, but they quickly lost steam and missed by 46 runs. As Pakistan tried to reach their goal of 227, their starter Saim Ayub did a great job. He hit a four and a six off the first ball of the chase.
Matt Henry was hit hard by the starter, who hit two sixes and a four. It looked like he would do a lot of damage during the powerplay. But Adam Milne worked quickly and caught the young batter short of his stance. He fell for an 8-ball 27. It was bad for Pakistan that they also lost Mohammad Rizwan during the power play, even though he looked fine for a short time.
After the power play, there was a short period of scoring by boundaries. However, New Zealand slowly but surely took wickets to slow down the game. Fakhar Zaman was sent back to the bench after Ish Sodhi made a great low catch with one hand off his own bowling. At that point, Pakistan had to score 92 runs in the last seven overs, which made their chances a lot worse.
Babar Azam, who used to be captain of Pakistan, gave it his all. At the end of the 14th over, he hit Milne for a six, and in the next over, he hit a boundary and another six to get to fifty. Milne dealt Pakistan a double blow by killing both Azam Khan and Shaheen Afridi, though, giving Babar an unusual task. But Babar’s wicket and Pakistan’s surrender for 180 runs were the last straw. Jamal did hit his bat.
The Kiwis had scored 226 runs earlier, thanks to fifty scores from Mitchell and Williamson. New Zealand 226/8 (Daryl Mitchell 61, Kane Williamson 57, Shaheen Afridi 3-46), Pakistan 180 (Babar Azam 57, Saim Ayub 27; Tim Southee 4-25).
