WELLINGTON
\nNew Zealand secured a dominant eight-wicket win in the final T20I of the five-match series against Pakistan at Sky Stadium on Wednesday, delivering a commanding performance.
\nThe home side comfortably chased down a modest score of 128 given by the visitors, knocking winning runs for the loss of just two wickets and 60 balls to spare, courtesy of a blazing opening stand between Tim Seifert and Finn Allen.
\nThe duo added a quickfire 93 runs until Allen was dismissed by Sufiyan Muqeem in the seventh over. He scored 27 off 12 deliveries with the help of five fours and a six.
\nMuqeem caused a stir in New Zealand\u2019s run chase by getting in-form Mark Chapman stumped in his next over.
\nHowever, Seifert continued his onslaught and steered New Zealand over the line with an unbeaten 87 off 38 deliveries, studded with six fours and 10 sixes.
\nHe was also involved in a one-side 28-run partnership with Daryl Mitchell, who scored two not out.
\nFor Pakistan, Sufiyan Muqeem was the solitary wicket-taker, making two scalps for just six runs in his two overs.
\nNew Zealand captain Michael Bracewell\u2019s decision to put Pakistan into bat paid dividends as the touring side could register a modest total on the board despite Salman Ali Agha\u2019s half-century.
\nThe visitors got off to an unwanted start as they lost hard-hitting opener Hasan Nawaz (0) in the second over with just five runs on the board.
\nFollowing the early hiccup, Omair Bin Yousuf joined Mohammad Haris in the middle for a brief 18-run stand, which was followed by their back-to-back dismissals.
\nHaris scored 11 off 17 deliveries with the help of two boundaries, while Yousuf made seven.
\nThe green shirts then lost two more wickets in quick succession as Usman Khan (seven) and Abdul Samad (four) perished cheaply.
\nTheir dismissals had reduced Pakistan to 52\/5 in 10.2 overs until skipper Agha and experienced all-rounder Shadab recorded an anchoring partnership.
\nThe duo added an important 54 runs for the sixth wicket until Shadab was removed by James Neesham on the first delivery of the 17th over.
\nThe all-rounder scored 28 off 20 deliveries with the help of five boundaries.
\nNeesham inflicted another blow on the visitors as he sent Jahandad Khan back in the same over as Pakistan slipped further to 108\/7 in 16.4 overs.
\nAgha also fell victim to Neesham in the penultimate over and walked back after top-scoring for Pakistan with a 39-ball 51, comprised of six fours and a six.
\nNeesham was the standout bowler for New Zealand, taking five wickets for just 22 runs in his four overs, followed by Duffy with two, while Ish Sodhi and Ben Sears chipped in with one scalp apiece.
\nPlaying XIs
\nPakistan: Mohammad Haris (w), Hasan Nawaz, Omair Bin Yousuf, Salman Agha (c), Usman Khan, Shadab Khan, Abdul Samad, Jahandad Khan, Haris Rauf, Sufiyan Muqeem, Mohammad Ali.
\nNew Zealand: Tim Seifert, Finn Allen, Mark Chapman, Daryl Mitchell, Jimmy Neesham, Mitch Hay (wk), Michael Bracewell (c), Ish Sodhi, Jacob Duffy, Ben Sears, Will O\u2019Rourke.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
WELLINGTON New Zealand secured a dominant eight-wicket win in the final T20I of the five-match series against Pakistan at Sky Stadium on Wednesday, delivering a commanding performance. The home side comfortably chased down a modest score of 128 given by the visitors, knocking winning runs for the loss of just two wickets and 60 balls …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":78947,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-78939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78939"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78939\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78954,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78939\/revisions\/78954"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}