ISLAMABAD: Inspired by an impressive bowling performance by all-rounder Iftikhar Ahmed, Pakistan ended a disappointing tour of Down Under by beating New Zealand in the fifth T20I of the series between the two nations at Christchurch on Sunday.
Pakistan went into the match low on morale after losing four consecutive T20I matches against the hosts. The green shirts lost four matches against New Zealand this month after getting whitewashed by Australia in a three-match Test series that began in December and ended in January.
Pakistani captain Shaheen Shah Afridi had earlier won the toss and elected to bat first. The green shirts had put up a modest 134/8 at the end of their 20 overs, with vice-captain Mohammad Rizwan top-scoring with 38 while left-handed Fakhar Zaman made 33 runs.
Ahmed finished with figures of 3/24 from his four overs, taking the wickets of Tim Seifert, Matt Henry and Ish Sodhi to ensure Pakistan successfully defended the target. All-rounded Mohammad Nawaz and Afridi returned figures of 2/18 and 2/20 respectively.
“I read the wicket and bowled accordingly,” Ahmed said at the post-match ceremony. “The wicket was turning so I tried to bowl wicket by wicket.”
Afridi said Ahmed was an experienced player but Pakistan wanted to give the younger members of the squad a chance to prove themselves during the New Zealand series.
“So we were planning to give chances to youngsters this series, we sorted out 16-20 players (for the World Cup),” Afridi said.
New Zealand spinner Mitchell Santner said the pitch “really slowed” for the hosts, who were quite happy with Pakistan’s modest total.
“We just got outplayed in the second innings,” he admitted.