Haris Rauf’s four wickets help Pakistan beat New Zealand in the first T20I.
Pakistan beat New Zealand by 88 runs in the first Twenty20 match on Friday in Lahore. It was captain Babar Azam’s 100th international match in the shortest version.
Azam failed with only nine runs, but Fakhar Zaman and Saim Ayub each made 47 runs and put together a 79-run partnership for the third wicket to help Pakistan get to 182 all out in 19.5 overs.
Haris Rauf, a fast bowler who was one of five players who came back after being rested in Pakistan’s last series against Afghanistan, got his best career numbers of 4-18 when New Zealand was all out for 94 runs in 15.3 overs.
Left-arm spinner Imad Wasim finished with 2-2 in his only over — taking both his wickets off straight deliveries.
Mark Chapman scored the most runs with 34 in 27 balls, which included four fours and a six. Team captain Tom Latham got 20 in 24 balls.
Rauf’s best T20 score before that was 4-22, which he got against New Zealand in Sharjah in 2021.
Earlier, when Pakistan won the toss and chose to bat, Zaman and Ayub helped them get back on track after a bad start.
Adam Milne, a fast bowler, got both of Pakistan’s openers out in the fifth over. Mohammad Rizwan was leg before for eight, and then Azam was bowled.
Ayub sped up the game by hitting two fours off of Milne and Ben Lister. In the tenth over, he and Zaman each hit a six off of spinner Ish Sodhi.
In 34 balls, Zaman hit four fours and two sixes, while Ayub played quickly and hit two sixes and six fours in 28 balls.
Before Zaman was caught at deep square-leg by Sodhi, Ayub was run out while taking a second run.
In the last five overs, Pakistan got 47 more runs thanks to Faheem Ashraf’s 22 off of 16 balls and Wasim’s 16 off of 13 balls.
The best bowler for New Zealand was Henry, who got 3-32. Pakistan was bowled out on the next-to-last ball.
Milne ended with a score of 2-51, while Lister’s score was 2-30.
The last four games will be played in Lahore on April 15 and 17 and in Rawalpindi on April 20 and 24.
Playing XI Pakistan: Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Babar Azam (c), Fakhar Zaman, Saim Ayub, Shadab Khan, Iftikhar Ahmed, Imad Wasim, Faheem Ashraf, Shaheen Afridi, Haris Rauf, Zaman Khan
New Zealand: Tom Latham (wk/c), Chad Bowes, Will Young, Daryl Mitchell, Mark Chapman, James Neesham, Rachin Ravindra, Adam Milne, Matt Henry, Ish Sodhi, and Ben Lister.