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The third T20 match between New Zealand and Pakistan was dominated and won by New Zealand with 45 runs and along with this win, New Zealand sealed the series with 3-0 before the final game. Pakistan again seemed clueless in front of Kiwi batters and bowlers. It was the consecutive third game where Pakistan lost the game by a margin of runs. Kiwi opener Finn Allen(137) was considered player of the match after he smashed the highest T20I score for New Zealand. With the help of Finn Allen’s inning, New Zealand scored a massive 224 runs and it was the second 200+ score in this series. Pakistani bowlers look helpless against Finn Allen and other Kiwi batters. Babar Azam scored consecutive third fifty but except him, no other Pakistani batters were struggling. Tim South was the only bowler to pick more than one wicket for New Zealand but except Mat Henry, every other was economical enough to restrict Pakistani batters. Mohammad Nawaz tried to make some impact at the end with a cameo but Southee dismissed him before he got comfortable.
Pakistan won the T20I series against New Zealand in 2018-19 after that both teams played two T20 bilateral series and one tri-series New Zealand won one bilateral series other resulted in a draw and the tri-series was won by Pakistan.
Fin Allen
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After winning the toss Pakistan’s new captain Shaheen Shah Afridi chose to bowl and Finn Allen made him regret his decision at the end of New Zealand Inning. Harish Rauf gave them the first blow in the fourth over in the form of Devon Convey at the score of 28 but after that, it took 10.1 over and 125 runs to celebrate for Pakistan. Finn Allen scored 137 runs in just 62 balls and he smashed asian bowlers’ total of 16 long sixes at every corner of the ground, now he has scored the joint-highest sixes in a T20I inning with Hazartullah Zazai. Zaman Khan took the charge to get rid of Finn Allen at the 18th over but till then he has done every damage to the opponent. Other than Finn only Tim Seifert crosses the 20-run margin in the New Zealand inning.
Babar Azam
Babar Azam being the only good thing for the Pakistan team in this series has scored back-to-back third T20I fifty in this game. While wickets were continuously falling from one side, Babar Azam kept one end under control and kept Pakistan’s hopes alive, but in the 16th over, his bat also left him and Pakistan’s remaining hopes fell with the same wicket. Before heading to the pavilion Babar proved his importance to the team by scoring 58 runs in 37 balls. A few months before he was being criticised for his intent while batting and his captaincy due to which he stepped down as a captain of Pakistan. He has scored 66, and 57 in the first two games, and both while chasing big scores, no other batter seemed helping him from the other end instead of Fakhar Zamaan in in the previous T20I. Except for Babar Azam only Mohammad Nawaz contributed some crucial runs with a good strike rate. On one hand, New Zealand’s batsman Finn Allen batted openly, while Pakistan’s batters were seen struggling in front of the Kiwi bowlers.
New Zealand has won the third T20 match and with this win, the hosts have taken an unbeaten lead of 3-0. The next match will take place at Heagly Oval on 19th Jan and it will be interesting to see if will Pakistan be able to register a single win in this series or if New Zealand will clean sweep.
