After Pakistan’s cricket team lost to New Zealand in the second T20I, fast bowler Haris Rauf got a bit heated at the post-match press conference. New Zealand beat Pakistan again, with Salman Agha’s team falling to a 5-wicket defeat. Rauf mentioned that in Pakistan, it’s pretty normal for people to slam the players and he felt like some folks were just waiting for them to lose so they could jump on the criticism bandwagon.
Rauf said that it’s usual for players to get some flak back home. He pointed out that the team has a bunch of young guys who are just getting a shot and it’s unfair to come down hard on them too soon. Rauf noted that other teams give their younger players more time to find their feet. Usually, they get about 10 to 15 games to prove themselves. Making the jump into international cricket is never easy. It’s a learning curve but it seems like some people in Pakistan are always ready to pounce when they lose.
Basically, New Zealand’s opening batsmen went on a hitting spree, smashing sixes all over the place. They beat Pakistan by five wickets and now lead the Twenty20 series 2-0. The match was played on Tuesday.
The Kiwis got to 137-5 with 11 balls left, wrapping up the win. Pakistan had posted 135-9 in their innings, which was cut short to 15 overs because of some rain. So, with that win, New Zealand now has a solid lead in the five-match series.
The real excitement came from New Zealand’s opening pair: Tim Seifert and Finn Allen. They really teed off and it’s interesting to note that seven of the initial eight scoring shots were sixes!
Interestingly enough, Seifert actually played a maiden over from Shaheen Shah Afridi at the start. But then Allen just started clearing the small boundary at University Oval, hitting three sixes in Mohammad Ali’s second over. After that, Seifert blasted 26 runs off Afridi’s next over. That included four sixes!
Seifert, who had scored the most runs with 44 during the nine-wicket victory in Christchurch the past Sunday, was out after scoring 45 from 22 balls. Allen was dismissed soon after for 38 runs off 16 balls. Interestingly, both openers slammed five sixes each. So, they got the game off to a very fast start.