Tim Southee
Tim Southee’s burst of five wickets in nine deliveries, which included a hat trick, was the highlight of New Zealand’s thumping victory over Pakistan in the first of the three match T20 series.
After being put into bat, Afridi promoted himself to the top of the order and got Pakistan of to a flying start. It took a wonderful catch from Southee to dismiss him but Pakistan had already put up 36 on the board by the 4th over. Ahmed Shehzad made a quickfire 14 before he became Southee’s first victim.
Southee then became the third bowler and second Kiwi, after Jacob Oram, to take a hat trick in T20’s as he dismissed Younis Khan, Mohammed Hafeez and Umar Akmal of consecutive deliveries in the 8th over. He also dismissed Razzaq in his next over and Pakistan had slumped form 58/1 to 68/6. Some brave resistance put up by Umar Gul and some lusty hitting from Wahab Riaz towards the end helped Pakistan reach 143/9.
In response, Guptill began in a hurry hitting a couple of boundaries and a six as 15 runs were taken of Razzaq’s first over. He then pulled Shoaib Akthar for a six over square leg before Akthar got rid of Ryder. Akthar then dismissed Brownlie and Styris but not before a couple more sixes were hit and New Zealand had reached 50 in the blink of an eye.
A couple more boundaries of Wahab Riaz and a six of Hafeez and Guptill brought up his own 50 in 23 balls before he was run out against the run of play. With less than six runs required per over from the last 10 overs, Taylor, in the company of Franklin steadied the scoring as the Kiwis cruised towards victory. Franklin fell to Hafeez with 29 runs to get but Taylor plundered 27 of the next 2 overs to give New Zealand a 1-0 lead in the series and most importantly get them back to winning ways.
Tags: Cricket, New Zealand, Pakistan, T20 International, T20 Match, T20 Series, Tim Southee
