The off-spinner began to exert pressure on Pakistan from the PowerPlay stage at a venue with greater squared boundaries than others in the country. It was difficult to play strokes since the pitch had some ball stopping. Bracewell bowled significantly shorter lengths to entice the Pakistan openers to give him the charge. Rizwan fell for the ruse. James Neesham was at mid-on during the sixth over, and he went back to finish the catch.
After conceding only six runs in his two overs during the Powerplay, he came back in the eleventh over and promptly dismissed Babar Azam for a wobbly 21 off 23 runs. He bowled16 dots and no boundaries when executing a four overs spell. Without any assistance from Shan Masood, Shadab Khan and Haider Ali, Pakistan fell from 54 for 2 in the 11th over to 77 for 5 in the 14th over.
And showing how poor the middle order is for Babar Azam’s team. Thanks to their 51 runs sixth wicket stand off just 29 balls, Iftikhar Ahmed and Asif Ali were successful. Mitchell Santner and Ish Sodhi both claimed two wickets as Pakistan struggled against spin and eventually scored a pitiful 130 for 7 in their quota of 20 overs.
As Allen and Conway targeted the bowlers as well, Babar Azam’s hopes that his spinners might follow the lead of their New Zealand equivalents and make breakthroughs were dashed. As they accumulated 57 runs in the Powerplay, Allen and Conway batted as though the wicket had nothing to give the bowlers. In the ninth over, Allen scored his half century off just 31deliveries.
Before Shadab Khan stumped him in the 14th over, the opener had scored 62 runs off 42 balls, including one four and six sixes. More importantly, New Zealand was one run away from victory with a score of 117 for 1. Three overs later, Kane Williamson hit the winning runs to give New Zealand their second win back to back in the Tri-series.
Brief Scoreboard : Pakistan 130/7 in 20 overs (Asif Ali 25, Michael Bracwell 2-11, Mitchell Santner 2-27) lost to New Zealand 131/1 in 16.1 overs (Finn Allen 62, Devon Conway 49*) by 9 wickets.
image credit : sportsin
💫PLEASE DO FOLLOW US FOR MORE UPDATES. ❌WE DO NOT HAVE IRRITATING AND SPAMMY NEWSLETTERS. ✅EVERYTHING IS AND WILL BE FREE FOREVER. SEE YOU AGAIN IN YOUR STORIES AND FEED 🙂
