Pakistan on Tuesday defeated New Zealand by five wickets to register their second victory against a strong team in the T20 World Cup. They had defeated arch-rivals India by 10 wickets in their opening match of the competition.
Batting first, New Zealand had made 134-8 in 20 overs. Daryl Mitchell and Devon Conway made 27 each while skipper Kane Williamson contributed with 25 runs.
Haris Rauf was the tormentor-in-chief as he finished with a spell of 4-22 in four overs. Shaheen Afridi, Imad Wasim and Mohammad Hafeez shared one wicket each.
Pakistan achieved the target by losing just five wickets with eight balls to spare. Mohammad Rizwan, the hero of the first match, played a knock of 33, while skipper Babar Azam could only make 9. It was left up to veteran Shaoib Malik and Asif Ali to script the victory for Pakistan. Malik remained not out at 26, made in 20 balls, while Ali was unbeaten at 27 that he took just 12 balls to score.
Azam later said that he was thanked to Allah for his side’s second successive victory in the competition, but he felt Pakistan could have restricted New Zealand to 125.
In another match played on Tuesday, South Africa defeated West Indies by eight wickets. West Indies had made 143-8 in 20 overs. South Africa achieved the target in 18.2 overs by losing just two wickets.
Aiden Makran made 51 in just 26 balls for South Africa, while Rassie van der Dussen and Reeza Hendricks scored 43 and 39 respectively. The duo of Van der Dussen and Markram stitched a 50-run partnership for the third wicket.