CHRISTCHURCH: New Zealand spinners stormed through the Pakistan batting line before openers Fin Allen and Devon Conway pounded the bowlers to clinch a comprehensive nine-wicket win for the Blackcaps in the ongoing tri-series, here on Tuesday.
With the dominating win, Kiwis avenged the earlier defeat by six wickets in their first encounter against Pakistan on Saturday.
Set to chase a paltry 131, Allen smashed half a dozen sixes during his blistering knock of 65 off 42 while Conway contributed with an unbeaten 49 off 46, propelling their side to achieve the target with 23 balls to spare.
The pair raised a phenomenal opening partnership of 117 runs before Shadab Khan struck with the lone wicket for the bowling side as he stumped out Allen.
Earlier, Pakistan went through a dismal day with the bat and failed to hit a single six during the whole innings after they opted to bat first.
Michael Bracewell and Mitchel Santner dismissed two wickets each while Ish Sodhi struck one to jitter the Green Shirts’ batting line before Iftikhar Ahmed and Asif Ali put up a slight resistance as they built a 51-run partnership for the seventh wicket.
The steady partnership between the two was only broken in the last over by veteran pacer Tim Southee who bowled an impressive final over, striking two wickets and conceding just two runs, to restrict Pakistan to 130/7 in the allotted 20 overs.
Iftikhar top-scored for Pakistan with 27 off 27 balls while Asif scored an unbeaten 25 off 20.
On the other hand, Mohammad Rizwan (16), Shan Masood (14), Babar Azam (21), Shadab Khan (8) and Haider Ali (8) failed to impress.
Bracewell had the first breakthrough for New Zealand when he dismissed Rizwan in the 5th over after he faced 17 balls.
Santner joined the attack and ceased Shan Masood’s brief stay on the crease in the 8th over to set off the alarm bells for Pakistan.
No.4 batter Shadab fell cheaply by the left-arm spinner before the skipper Babar, who was looking in fine touch, was sent back to the pavilion by Bracewell in the 11th over.
Blackcaps forced Pakistan to be on the back foot throughout the game as they were reduced to 77/5 in the 14th over when Ish Sodhi dismissed Haider cheaply on 8.
New Zealand will now lock horns against Bangladesh on Wednesday (Tomorrow) while Pakistan faces the latter on Thursday in their final encounter before the final on Friday between the top two teams.
