T20 World Cup: Harris and Asif's excellent performance, Pakistan defeated New Zealand

T20 World Cup: Harris and Asif's excellent performance, Pakistan defeated New Zealand

In the T20 World Cup 2021, Pakistan defeated New Zealand by five wickets to win the event for the second time in a row.

In the Super 12 round match played in Sharjah, Babar Azam won the toss and elected to bowl first, and invited New Zealand to bat.

For Pakistan, Shaheen Shah Afridi once again bowled well and bowled the first over, but then openers Daryl Mitchell and Martin Guptill batted responsibly to give their team a 36-run lead.

In the sixth over, captain Babar Azam brought in fast bowler Harris Rauf to a bowl and he fulfilled the captain's confidence by bowling Guptill on the second ball who scored 17 runs.

On the first ball of the ninth over of the match, Mitchell hit a six to Emad but in an attempt to hit a six again on the next ball, Fakhr Zaman was caught and Mitchell scored 27 runs.

To increase the run rate, New Zealand promoted James Neesham to the top marks but Mohammad Hafeet made him run on the first ball of his spell.

In Hafeez's next over, Ken Williamson was declared LBW but it was clear in the review that the ball had hit the pad after hitting his bat, so he was declared not out.

 In one over of Shadab, Devon Conway hit three fours to take the score to 90 but on the first ball of the next over, Kiwi captain Williamson, who scored 25 runs on Hassan's direct throw, was run out.

The Pakistani bowlers' meticulous bowling made it difficult for the New Zealand batsmen to score fast runs and Devin Conway, who scored 27 runs in an attempt to hit a six to Haris Rauf, caught Babar at the boundary.

The New Zealand team had not yet recovered from the loss when Harris Rauf ended Glenn Phillips' innings after a ball.

Tim Seifert bowler Shaheen Shah Afridi but became the first wicket of the match on the next ball.

Harris Rauf continued his excellent bowling and took a wicket on the last ball of the innings and New Zealand scored 134 runs in the allotted overs.

For Pakistan, Haris Rauf bowled the best of his career and took 4 wickets for 22 runs while Hassan Ali, Emad Wasim, and Mohammad Hafeez took one wicket each.

Pakistani openers Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan started the innings in a positive manner and scored 28 runs in five overs.

In the first ball of the sixth over, Babar Azam got clean bowled in an attempt to play a big shot on the ball of Tim Southee, he scored 9 runs.

You Southee also completed a century of wickets in T20 cricket by dismissing Babar.

Fakhr Zaman hit a six to Ash Sodhi but then his ball was declared LBW. The field umpire declared Fakhr not out but New Zealand decided to take a review on which the left-arm batsman was declared out.

Mohammad Hafeez's innings could not go beyond 11 runs and Devon Conway ended his innings with a brilliant catch on the boundary.

The national team had not yet recovered from the loss that Rizwan also returned to the pavilion after becoming LBW on the ball of Ash Sodhi.

Emad Wasim was also seen struggling throughout the innings and became the wicket of Southee after scoring 10 off 12 balls.

When Emad Wasim was out, the match seemed to be slipping out of Pakistan's hands as Pakistan needed 48 runs off 31 balls to win.

But at this stage, Shoaib Malik and Asif Ali changed the course of the match with excellent and aggressive batting.

Asif Ali hit two sixes in a row to Tim Southee while Shoaib Malik scored 15 runs in the 18th over by the centurion.

Asif Ali also sealed Pakistan's victory by scoring a brilliant six off Bolt and the national team won the match by 5 wickets with 8 balls to spare.

Earlier, Pakistan has not made any changes in the squad for the match and the winner of the last match has fielded XI.

Before the match, New Zealand captain Ken Williamson's fitness was in question, but he managed to clear the fitness test before the match.

However, New Zealand has suffered a major setback before the match and fast bowler Loki Ferguson has been ruled out of the World Cup due to injury.

Both teams consist of these players for the match.

Pakistan: Babar Azam (captain), Fakhruzzaman, Mohammad Rizwan, Shoaib Malik, Haris Rauf, Mohammad Hafeez, Shaheen Shah, Hassan Ali, Emad Wasim, Asif Ali, Shadab Khan.

New Zealand: Ken Williamson (captain), Martin Guptill, Devon Conway, Glenn Phillips, Tim Seifert, Daryl Mitchell, James Neesham, Mitchell Sentner, Tim Southee, Trent Bolt, Ash Sodhi.