Pakistan, New Zealand to play third T20I match tomorrow

Lahore: Pakistan and New Zealand will play the third and the last match of three-match T20I series at Gaddafi Stadium tomorrow.

Pakistan lead the series 2-0.

The tomorrow match will start at 9:00 pm.

On Saturday night, Babar Azam’s third century and another four-wicket haul from Haris Rauf led Pakistan to a 38-run win over New Zealand in the second T20I at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore.

After opting to bat first, the opening pair of Mohammad Rizwan and Babar Azam provided a solid 99-run start to the innings with Rizwan bringing up his 24th half-century in this format off 29 balls, smashing seven fours and a six. He was the first to be dismissed in the 11th over courtesy Daryl Mitchell taking a catch off last match hat-trick bowler Matt Henry.

Henry was well on course to take another hat-trick when he sent Fakhar Zaman back to the hut the very next ball, but was denied the hat-trick by left-handed Saim Ayub who blocked the last ball of the 11th over. But Saim was dismissed in the next over (11.5) without scoring any runs. All-rounder Imad Wasim was dismissed early (2 off 5) with the home side in a spot of bother with the scoreboard reading 105 for four in 12.5 overs.

At that crucial juncture of the innings, skipper and player of the match Babar was joined by Iftikhar Ahmed and the pair went on to score runs at will. The duo added an unbroken 87 runs for the fifth wicket off 43 balls, which included Iftikhar’s unbeaten 33 off 19 balls, hitting one four and three sixes. But the star of the night was Babar, who during the course of the match, not only brought up his third T20I century, but also became the first captain to score three centuries in this format. This was also Babar’s second T20I century at home, with his first century coming against England in Karachi seven months ago.

Almost a packed capacity Lahore crowd thoroughly enjoyed Babar’s strokeplay as the third-ranked ICC T20I batter brought up his half-century in 36 balls, laced with six fours. He went on to score the remaining 51 runs off just 22 balls, and returned undefeated on 101 off 58 balls, striking seven fours and one six.

The Lahore-born batter needed seven runs off the last two balls of the innings to complete his third century, which he achieved splendidly by hitting two boundaries in as many balls.

This helped Pakistan post 192 for four – their second highest total at the Gaddafi Stadium.

For New Zealand, Henry ended up with figures of two for 29 in four overs.

In return, the tourists chasing 193 to win at the required run-rate of 9.65 were not allowed to score freely.

Despite not losing a single wicket in the batting powerplay, the Kiwis managed to score only 43 runs. After losing their skipper Tom Latham in the seventh over for a 20-ball 19, the tourists never recovered to chase down the target and lost wickets at regular intervals.

Latham’s opening partner Chad Bowes scored 26 off 24, which included three fours. The fact that the Kiwis managed to score 154 for seven in their allotted 20 overs was largely due to Mark Chapman's unbeaten innings of 65 off 40 balls, hitting four fours and as many sixes.

For Pakistan, right-arm fast bowler Haris Rauf once again excelled as he claimed back-to-back four-wicket hauls, taking four wickets and conceding 27 runs from his four overs. In the first T20I, Haris took four wickets for 18 runs in 3.3 overs.