{"id":68361,"date":"2025-03-18T11:56:07","date_gmt":"2025-03-18T06:56:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/?p=68361"},"modified":"2025-03-18T11:56:07","modified_gmt":"2025-03-18T06:56:07","slug":"new-zealand-crush-pakistan-by-five-wickets-for-2-0-lead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/sports\/new-zealand-crush-pakistan-by-five-wickets-for-2-0-lead\/","title":{"rendered":"New Zealand crush Pakistan by five wickets for 2-0 lead"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"template__main  flow-root  px-1 w-full sm:w-2\/3 mx-auto md:min-w-183\">\n<div class=\"story__content  overflow-hidden    text-4  sm:text-4.5        pt-1  mt-1\" dir=\"auto\">\n<p>DUNEDIN: New Zealand men\u2019s openers went on a six-hitting blitz on Tuesday to thrash Pakistan by five wickets and go 2-0 up in their <a href=\"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/sports\/pakistan-new-zealand-t20-series-trophy-unveiled\/\">Twenty20 series<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>New Zealand\u2019s highlight was a ferocious opening stand between Tim Seifert and Finn Allen in which seven of the first eight scoring shots were sixes.<\/p>\n<p>Remarkably, Seifert played out a maiden off Shaheen Shah Afridi\u2019s opening over before Allen cleared the small University Oval boundary three times in the second over, bowled by Mohammad Ali.<\/p>\n<p>Seifert then smashed 26 off Afridi\u2019s second over, including four sixes.<\/p>\n<p>Seifert, who top-scored with 44 in the\u00a0nine-wicket win\u00a0in Christchurch on Sunday, departed on 45 off 22 balls.<\/p>\n<p>Allen fell soon afterwards for 38 off 16, with the openers hammering five sixes each.<\/p>\n<p>Four New Zealand wickets fell in the space of four overs midway through the chase before Mitch Hay\u2019s unbeaten 21 made the outcome safe.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>They were 19-2 in the fourth over before the skipper embarked on a knock that featured four fours and three sixes.<\/p>\n<p>Shadab Khan was aggressive in the middle order with 26 off 14 balls and Afridi was not-out 22 off 14.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>New Zealand can wrap up the series if victorious in game three in Auckland on Friday.<\/p>\n<p>Pakistan\u2019s one change for the match was the introduction of seamer Haris Rauf for leg-spinner Abrar Ahmed.<\/p>\n<p>The start was delayed for 90 minutes because of rain at University Oval.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"template__footer  flow-root  px-1\">\n<div class=\"w-full sm:w-2\/3 mx-auto border-t border-gray-200 mb-4 pt-2\">\n<div class=\"flex flex-col sm:flex-row\">\n<div class=\"w-full  sm:w-1\/2\">\n<div class=\"mb-0 sm:mb-4\">\n<div class=\"flex\">\n<div class=\"w-full\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>DUNEDIN: New Zealand men\u2019s 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 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":68363,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[460,1315,27239],"class_list":["post-68361","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-new-zealand-cricket","tag-pakistan-cricket","tag-pak-vs-new-zealand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68361","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68361"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68361\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":68364,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68361\/revisions\/68364"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68363"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}