New Zealand crush Pakistan by five wickets for 2-0 lead

DUNEDIN: New Zealand men’s openers went on a six-hitting blitz on Tuesday to thrash Pakistan by five wickets and go 2-0 up in their Twenty20 series.

The home side reached 137-5 with 11 balls to spare in Dunedin to take control of the five-match series after Pakistan posted 135-9 off 15 overs in a rain-reduced second match.

New Zealand’s highlight was a ferocious opening stand between Tim Seifert and Finn Allen in which seven of the first eight scoring shots were sixes.

Remarkably, Seifert played out a maiden off Shaheen Shah Afridi’s opening over before Allen cleared the small University Oval boundary three times in the second over, bowled by Mohammad Ali.

Seifert then smashed 26 off Afridi’s second over, including four sixes.

Seifert, who top-scored with 44 in the nine-wicket win in Christchurch on Sunday, departed on 45 off 22 balls.

Allen fell soon afterwards for 38 off 16, with the openers hammering five sixes each.

Four New Zealand wickets fell in the space of four overs midway through the chase before Mitch Hay’s unbeaten 21 made the outcome safe.

Earlier, captain Salman Agha top-scored with 46 off 28 balls, launching a recovery after Pakistan were sent in and lost opener Hasan Nawaz without scoring for the second time in the series.

They were 19-2 in the fourth over before the skipper embarked on a knock that featured four fours and three sixes.

Shadab Khan was aggressive in the middle order with 26 off 14 balls and Afridi was not-out 22 off 14.

Four New Zealand bowlers took two wickets, including seamer Ben Sears and all-rounder Jimmy Neesham, who were both recalled, in place of Tim Robinson and Kyle Jamieson.

New Zealand can wrap up the series if victorious in game three in Auckland on Friday.

Pakistan’s one change for the match was the introduction of seamer Haris Rauf for leg-spinner Abrar Ahmed.

The start was delayed for 90 minutes because of rain at University Oval.