Pakistan beats New Zealand by 88 runs in the first T20 match. Chasing a target of 183 runs, the visitors bowled out for just 94 runs.
Kiwi bowler Matthew Henry’s hat-trick went in vain in front of the Pakistani bowling line.
Mark Chapman 34, captain Tom Latham 20 and James Neesham were the top scorers with 15 runs. Haris Rauf of the green shirts guided 4 batters of the rival team to the pavilion.
For Pakistan, Imad Wasim took 2 wickets. While Shaheen Shah Afridi, Zaman Khan, Faheem Ashraf and Shadab Khan took 1 wicket each.
The second match between the two teams will played today on April 15 at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore. After that match both the teams will leave for Rawalpindi.
Earlier in the match at Gaddafi Stadium Lahore, captain Babar Azam won the toss and decided to bat first. The Pakistani team bowled out for 182 runs in 19.5 overs.
Fakhar Zaman and Saeem Ayub scored 47 and 47 runs from the green shirts. While Faheem Ashraf 22 and Imad Wasim were the prominent batsmen with 16 runs.
Captain Babar Azam 9, Mohammad Rizwan 8, Shadab Khan 5, Iftikhar Ahmed 0, Shaheen Afridi 1 and Haris Rauf returned to the pavilion after scoring 11 runs.
During the match, Kiwi bowler Matthew Henry dismissed Shadab Khan and Iftikhar Ahmed on the 5th and 6th ball of the 13th over of the match. While he completed his hat-trick by controlling Shaheen Shah Afridi on the very first ball of his next over.
Earlier, Babar Azam and Tom Latham came out for the toss. The green shirts captain won the toss and elected to bat first.
Muhammad Rizwan, Fakhar Zaman, Saeem Ayub, Shadab Khan, Iftikhar Ahmed, Imad Wasim, Faheem Ashraf, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Haris Rauf and Zaman Khan includes in the Babar Azam XI.
On the other hand, Tom Latham, Chad Bowes, Will Young, Daryl Mitchell, Mark Chapman, James Neesham, Rachin Rondra, Adam Milne, Matt Henry, Ash Soodi and Ben Lister included in the final XI from New Zealand.
In the last 5 T20 matches played between Pakistan and New Zealand, the green shirts have a heavy load, in most of them Pakistan successfully chased down the target.
The Green Shirts won 4 out of 5 matches while New Zealand won only one.
Pakistan beats New Zealand by 5 wickets in the match played on October 26, 2021. While Green Shirts won by 6 wickets in the match on October 8, 2022.
In the match held on October 11, 2022, New Zealand defeated Pakistan by 9 wickets. While in the match on October 14, 2022, the Green Shirts won by 5 wickets.
In the match held on November 9 last year, Green Shirts won by 7 wickets.