Pallekele: Pakistan beat New Zealand by 13 runs in their first t20 international match of the T20 World Cup 2012. Pakistan won the toss and elected to bat first. It was third consecutive victory of Pakistan against the kiwis in the history of t20 international.
Pakistani openers Mohammad Hafez and Imran Nazir took a solid start. in particular, Imran Nazir scored a quick 25 runs of 16 deliveries where as the captain Hafeez played a sensible innings of 43 runs. Nasir Jamshed was the star of the day who scored crushing half century in a very quick time and also took three catches in the field
In reply the New Zealand openers took a slow but sensible start and continued a healthy partnership of 57 runs. The middle order can’t spend much time on the wicket and Pakistani spin attack once again remained on the top. Saeed Ajmal as usual was the pick of the bowlers who took 4 wickets in his 4 overs for 26 runs. Shahid Afridi. Umer Gul and Sohail Tanveer also took one wicket each
New Zealand skipper .Taylor was the pick of the batsman. Taylor scored 26 quick runs of just 11 balls in the end to bring his team near the victory but unfortunately he also couldn’t stay on the wicket longer and was bowled by Umer Gul.
By Shayan Jamal