WELLINGTON: New Zea­land extended their winning streak across all cricket formats at home this season to 12 matches when they beat Pakistan by seven wickets in the first Twenty20 Inter­national here on Monday.

Pakistan slumped to 38-6, flirting with their lowest-ever T20 score of 74, before being dismissed for 105 as they were out into bat on a sub-standard drop-in pitch at the Westpac Stadium in the clash of the world’s top two ranked Twenty20 sides.

The tourists owed almost half of that total to Babar Azam, who was the last man out for 41 and one of only two players, with Hasan Ali (23) to reach double figures.

New Zealand, in their turn at the crease, slumped to 8-2 before their innings was stabilized by a 49-run, third-wicket partnership between Colin Munro and Tom Bruce (26).

Munro went on to 49 in an unbroken partnership of 48 with Ross Taylor (22 not out) which saw New Zealand to 106-3 with 25 balls remaining.

Munro, the top-ranked batsman in T20 Inter­nationals, was bidding to become the third player after Chris Gayle and Brendon McCullum to score four consecutive T20 half centuries. But he was left one run short when Taylor hit three consecutive fours to leave New Zealand level with Pakistan total and the winning run came from a wide.

“It was very pleasing for me and the team to get over the line first and foremost,” man-of-the-match Munro said. “It was sort of a tricky wicket at times but I just gave myself some time. We lost a few wickets around me but it was just a matter of me going out there and trying to bat for as long as I can and take the team home.”

New Zealand have now won two Tests, two One-day Internationals and three T20s against the West Indies, swept Pakistan 5-0 in the ODI series and have now taken that winning form into a new Twenty20 series, remaining unbeaten at home this season.

The Black Caps owed a great deal on Monday to their opening bowlers Seth Rance, who took 3-26, and Tim Southee, who took 3-13 while carrying the extra burden of the captaincy after Kane Williamson withdrew from the match with a leg injury.

Spinner Mitchell Santner took 2-15 from his four overs through the middle of the innings.

Pakistan were in immediate trouble at 22-4 in the sixth over as Southee led a dismantling of the Pakistan top order.

By the 15th over, Pakistan were 53-7 and in danger of falling short of their current lowest score of 74 against Australia six years ago, when Babar and Hasan boosted the total with a 30-run partnership.

Pakistan captain Sarfraz Ahmed again had to defend a woeful performance by his top order batsmen, which also plagued them in the ODI series, and believed they were well short of a competitive total.

“We’re not batting well enough up the order. The new ball was swinging and bouncing, we didn’t keep wickets in hand. They bowled very well with the new ball,” he said. “If we had a score of 140-150 it could have been a good match. But we lost too many wickets in the first six overs and we couldn’t recover.”

Munro said while the pitch was difficult, it wasn’t impossible to score on.

“It was a little bit up and down but I wouldn’t call it a shocker,” he said. “We adapted to the conditions probably because we were able to bowl on it first and see what it did.”

For Southee everything went according to plan.

“Obviously winning the toss on that wicket and then coming out and taking early wickets was the plan and we were able to do that. We bowled exceptionally well,” said Southee who also paid tribute to Munro’s role with the bat. “It was a great knock from Colin. He likes to get on with it and I think he played a mature innings and was able to hammer it home towards the end.”

Scoreboard

PAKISTAN: Fakhar Zaman c Kitchen b Southee 3
Umar Amin c Kitchen b Rance 0
M. Nawaz c Munro b Southee 7
Haris Sohail c Bruce b Kitchen 9
Babar Azam c Bruce b Munro 41
Sarfraz Ahmed st Phillips b Santner 9
Shadab Khan c Phillips b Santner 0
Fahim Ashraf c Bruce b Southee 7
Hasan Ali c Southee b Rance 23
M. Amir c Southee b Rance 3
Rumman Raees not out 0

EXTRAS (W-3) 3
TOTAL (all out, 19.4 overs) 105
FALL OF WKTS: 1-4, 2-4, 3-15, 4-22, 5-38, 6-38, 7-53, 8-83, 9-90.
BOWLING: Rance 4-0-26-3 (1w); Southee 4-0-13-3 (1w); de Grandhomme 2-0-11-0; Kitchen 1-0-3-1; Sodhi 4-0-25-0 (1w); Santner 4-0-15-2; Munro 0.4-0-12-1.

NEW ZEALAND:

M.J. Guptill c Nawaz b Rumman 2
C. Munro not out 49
G.D. Phillips b Rumman 3
T.C. Bruce c Fakhar b Shadab 26
L.R.P.L. Taylor not out 22

EXTRAS (LB-1, W-3) 4
TOTAL (for three wkts, 15.5 overs) 106
FALL OF WKTS: 1-3, 2-8, 3-57.
DID NOT BAT: A.K. Kitchen, C. de Grandhomme, M.J. Santner, T.G. Southee, I.S. Sodhi, S.H.A. Rance.
BOWLING: Mohammad Amir 3-0-13-0 (1w); Rumman Raees 4-0-24-2 (1w); Shadab 4-0-18-1; Hasan Ali 2.5-0-28-0 (1w); Fahim Ashraf 1-0-8-0; Mohammad Nawaz 1-0-14-0 .

RESULT: New Zealand won by seven wickets to lead three-match series 1-0.
UMPIRES: W.R. Knights (New Zealand) and C.M. Brown (New Zealand).
TV UMPIRE: S.B. Haig (New Zealand).
MATCH REFEREE: R.B. Richardson (West Indies).
MAN-OF-THE-MATCH: Colin Munro.
SECOND MATCH: Auckland, Thursday.
THIRD MATCH: Mount Maunganui, Sunday.

Published in Dawn, January 23rd, 2018