Pace bowler Tim Southee bagged a five-wicket haul including a hat-trick as New Zealand comprehensively beat Pakistan by five wickets in their opening Twenty20 cricket match yesterday.
It was only the third hat-trick in the history of Twenty20 internationals as a withering Southee spell put the brakes on a brisk Pakistan start from which the tourists never recovered.
Their 143 for nine was knocked off by New Zealand with 17 balls to spare and five wickets in hand, giving the Black Caps a much-needed victory after a string of 11 one-day defeats.
PHOTO: AFP
“After the way we’ve played in the last three-four months it’s a great start” to the Pakistan series, stand-in captain Ross Taylor said as he congratulated man-of-the-match Southee. “Tim was outstanding.”
It was also a morale-boosting performance for new coach John Wright who was only brought in to guide the team in a major shake-up last week and was immediately confronted with the news his most senior players Daniel Vettori and Brendon McCullum were out injured.
New Zealand’s poor run appeared to be continuing when Pakistan raced to 62 for two in a rollicking first seven overs before Southee turned the game around in a whirlwind nine-ball spell in which he took five wickets for no runs.
It began with the last ball of his opening over when he had Ahmed Shehzad caught by wicketkeeper Peter McGlashan for 14.
From the second ball of his next over Younis Khan (two) top edged to debutant Dean Brownlie in the deep.
As the ball was skied, opener Mohammad Hafeez was left to regret racing to the other end as his innings of 24 off 19 deliveries ended on the next ball which he nicked to McGlashan.
Umar Akmal was unfortunate to complete the hat-trick when given out leg before wicket on the first ball he faced as television replays indicated a thick inside edge before the ball hit the pads.
Southee rounded off his wicket-taking exploits with the second ball of his third over which Abdul Razzaq (one) steered to McGlashan and he ended his four-over spell with the impressive figures of five for 17.
Kyle Mills (three for 37) kept the pressure on Pakistan before tail-end pair Wahab Riaz and Shoaib Akhtar smashed 31 off the last two overs.
But 143 was never going to be enough on an easy surface and New Zealand openers Jesse Ryder and Martin Guptill took control from the start.
They had 27 runs on the board inside two overs before Ryder (six) departed as the first of Akhtar’s three wickets.
Brownlie (five) and Scott Styris (seven) also fell cheaply to the express bowler but New Zealand always had the run rate under control.
Guptill blasted 54 from 29 balls before he was run out while Taylor made 39 not out from 31 balls.
official slams india
AFP, KARACHI
A senior Pakistani cricket official on Saturday blamed India for the exclusion of Pakistan’s players from next year’s lucrative Indian Premier League (IPL) Twenty20 tournament.
Subhan Ahmed, chief operating officer of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), claimed that India did not respond to queries about the participation of Pakistani players.
“We asked them about the participation of Pakistani players, but they did not give any response,” he told reporters. “From our end all the documentation that is needed, we undertake to provide them, whether that is permissions or no-objection certificates.”
He said Pakistan wanted its players to participate in the contest, which is a financial bonanza for those who take part, but said: “[Pakistanis] playing or not in this event is not in our hands.”
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB