Colin Munro yesterday ensured New Zealand continued their stellar home summer when they thrashed Pakistan by seven wickets with 25 balls to spare in the opening Twenty20 in Wellington.
Munro was left unbeaten on 49 when a wide by Hasan Ali in the 16th over gave New Zealand victory as they chased down Pakistan’s 105 in the clash of the world’s top two ranked Twenty20 sides.
It extended New Zealand’s winning streak to 13 across all three formats in the past two months, including five one-day internationals against Pakistan and a series of Tests, one-day internationals and Twenty20s against the West Indies.
Photo: AFP
For Tim Southee, the stand-in captain after a late decision to rest Kane Williamson who has a minor injury, everything went according to plan.
“Obviously, winning the toss on that wicket, and then coming out and taking early wickets was the plan, and we were able to do that. We bowled exceptionally well,” said Southee, who also paid tribute to Munro’s role with the bat. “It was a great knock from Colin. He likes to get on with it, and I think he played a mature innings and was able to hammer it home towards the end.”
Pakistan captain Sarfraz Ahmed again had to defend a woeful performance by his top-order batsmen, which also plagued them in the one-day series, and believed they were well short of a competitive total.
Photo: AFP
“We’re not batting well enough up the order. The new ball was swinging and bouncing, we didn’t keep wickets in hand. They bowled very well with the new ball,” Ahmed said. “If we had a score of 140, 150 it could have been a good match.”
After a wobbly start in which Martin Guptill went for 2 and Glenn Phillips was bowled for 3, Munro and Tom Bruce (26) set up the New Zealand victory with a 49-run stand for the third wicket.
After cautiously lifting the score to 34-2 after eight overs, they took 23 off the next 12 balls to reduce the target to under six an over and coasted from there.
Following Bruce’s dismissal, Ross Taylor partnered Munro through to the end with a rapid 22 off 13 deliveries.
Munro’s 43-ball innings included three fours and two sixes, and he was left a frustrating one run short of being only the third player behind Brendon McCullum and Chris Gayle to score four consecutive half-centuries in Twenty20s.
Pakistan were in immediate trouble after being sent into bat and were 22-4 in the sixth over as Southee led a dismantling of their top order.
By the 15th over, Pakistan were 53-7 and in danger of falling short of their lowest score of 74 against Australia six years ago before Babar Khan (41) and Hasan Ali (23) boosted the total with a 30-run partnership.
Southee finished with 3-13, while Seth Rance took 3-26.
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