New Zealand beats Pakistan in 2nd T20 by 17 runs to draw the series
No Pakistani batsman really took a start; Afridi, Shahzad tried but failed to see it through
DUBAI: (Web Desk) - New Zealanad defeated Pakistan in the second Twenty-20 International at the Dubai International Stadium by 17 runs to draw the 2-match series 1 - 1.
New Zealand batted first to score 144 runs for the loss of 8 wickets. Pakistani bowlers did well to contain the Kiwis within 150 despite some brilliant hitting by Ronchi later down the innings. Devcich (26), Williamson (32) and Latham (26) all took starts to support Ronchi s effort in which he made 31 runs off 21 balls with the help of a boundary and 2 sixes.
New Zealand was contained under 150 through some excellent bowling by Raza Hasan and Umar Gul. Both did not let New Zealand score better than 1-a-ball during their 8 overs combined. However, Shahid Afridi and Sohail Tanvir proved expensive. Shahid Afridi and Umar Gul secured 2 wickets each while Mohammad Hafeez, Sohail Tanvir and Raza Hasan took 1 each.
Pakistan seemed under pressure from the very beginning when Sarfraz Ahmad was gone for 1 on the fourth ball of the innings. The hawk-eye however showed later that the umpire got it terrible wrong as the ball was missing the stumps. Hafeez joined Ahmad Shahzad and though he looked good after hitting back-to-back boundaries in the second over, the third one saw him bubbling one back to Devcich who made no mistakes catching it close to the ground. Haris Sohail disappointed yet again. He was the next to go for 3. Ahmad Shahzad and Saad Nasim struggled a bit and took the score to 64 with their 40-run partnership but Saad Nasim was caught by Brownlie off Neesham s bowling on this occasion.
Ahmad Shahzad s shot selection was terrible considering he had already played 36 balls for his 33. Shahid Afridi joined Umar Akmal and gave crowd some moments to cheer but Umar Akmal was out bowled by Neesham at 10 while Pakistan s total had only reached 97 and they still needed 48 runs to seal the series.
Shahid Afridi continued from the other end. But after hitting a massive third six off Neesham s bowling over mid-wicket, Shahid Afridi lost his wicket the very next ball when he tried to hook the bouncer and only managed to nick it to teh wicket-keeper.
Umar Gul and Sohail Tanvir did not do much harm to the Kiwi effort and all the team was out for 127 runs.
Neesham and Mills got 3 wickets each, Devcich got 2 while Vettori and Henri shared 1 each. Anton Devcich was the man of the match for his 21 runs and all important 2 wickets. Luke Ronchi was declared the Man of the Series for his 64 runs in 2 matches.
