New Zealand and Pakistan played the first T20 of the five-match T20 series in which Pakistan beat the visitors by 88 runs. In this match at Gaddafi Stadium, New Zealand’s pacer Matt Henry achieved a rare feat by becoming the fourth bowler from New Zealand to take a hat-trick in T20Is.
Babar Azam won the toss and chose to bat first. The captain has returned to the team after missing the series against Afghanistan. Pakistan got off to a poor start as both openers were dismissed cheaply. Babar only scored 9 runs, while Rizwan faced 10 balls but only managed to get 8 runs with his bat.
After their dismissal, Fakhar Zaman and Saim Ayub tried to accelerate the innings for Pakistan by scoring 47 runs each before getting dismissed. However, Matt Henry disturbed the momentum of Pakistan in the 13th over when he took the wickets of Shadab Khan and Iftikhar Ahmed on consecutive deliveries.
In the 19th over, Matt Henry returned and on the very first ball, he managed to get Shaheen Shah Afridi out with a catch by Bowes. With this, Henry achieved a hat-trick and became the fourth Kiwi player to do so in T20Is. Previously, Jacob Oram, Tim Southee, and Michael Bracewell had also accomplished the shortest format of the game.
In this match, Pakistan was bundled out at 182 runs in 19 overs. On the other hand, while chasing the target of 183 runs, Kiwi batters could not take the pace of Haris Rauf who got four wickets. The visitors’ team was sent to the pavilion on just 94 runs in 15.3 overs.
