Watch cricket video highlights between Pakistan vs New Zealand. New Zealand tour of Pakistan 2024 fourth twenty/20 International match, played at Lahore.
Captain of New Zealand: It is crucial that we apply the lessons we have gained from each game. Thankfully, we have the opportunity to turn the corner today. At the end, Pakistani bowlers performed really well. We led the game early thanks to the openers. Although we were unable to reach 200, I believe that Pakistan’s bowlers deserve praise. We are able to showcase fresh players, which is a big plus for us. We trusted Neesham to bowl those tough overs, and he was able to finish today. As a bowling unit, I thought our last five overs were quite strong.
Captain of Pakistan: I believe we did a great job of stopping them from bowling. Although the bowlers followed their plans and the score was chaseable, we were anticipating 190–200, but our batting collapsed. Although we lost three or four wickets during the powerplay, Fakhar had a fantastic innings. We were not able to pursue it with the good intentions that we desired. It takes a few overs to catch up when you lose consecutive wickets, but at that time, we lost our way.
We were returning to a different surface, and because our average score was 190, I believe we did a good job of restricting them. Although there were some adjustments because of injuries, the young people worked really hard. Our goal was to play a variety of combinations while providing an appropriate time to assess our bench strength. Hopefully, the team will be prepared for the World Cup.
Player of the Match William O’Rourke: Right now, we’re studying together and attempting to improve with each game, and it’s going nicely. It was a really fantastic experience, and I believe the audience was rather loud outside.
On Thursday, Pakistan failed to pursue the same goal in Lahore, four days after failing to protect 178 in Rawalpindi. New Zealand’s bowling arsenal, especially the speed combination of Ben Sears and Will O’Rourke, bowled with discipline and won the match against Pakistan by four runs to take a 2-1 lead in the series. Pakistan lost early wickets while chasing a target of 179, falling to 46 for 3 before the powerplay was over. Pakistan’s chances of winning were only preserved by a passionate display by their longtime rival Fakhar Zaman. After joining the team, Fakhar scored a brilliant 45 off of 45 balls, including three sixes, but Pakistan’s doom was sealed when he and an off-colour Iftikhar Ahmed fell in back-to-back overs.
But because to Imad Wasim, Pakistan managed to hold the match to the very final ball. Jimmy Neesham played a cagey last over, having to defend eighteen balls, and Pakistan needed six balls to win, their scythed blow behind point not enough to complete the robbery. In front of a packed audience earlier, Pakistan had won the toss and sent New Zealand in, making five changes to the side with the return of Mohammad Amir, Imad, and Zaman Khan. However, New Zealand delivered the decisive opening blows when Tom Blundell and Tim Robinson exploited the bowlers during the powerplay, taking the score to 56 in the first five overs.
Pakistan was able to partly contain New Zealand after Blundell was out, but Robinson’s explosive knock—he scored 51 off 36 before being removed by Abbas Afridi—put New Zealand in a dominating position at the midway point. Despite Imad and Amir’s impressive final-inning performances, New Zealand lost the match, but their bowlers’ effectiveness indicated that they had done just enough to hold Pakistan at bay.
Pakistan implemented modifications in the fast-bowling division, as both Naseem Shah and Shaheen Shah Afridi were left out. Amir replaced him, but Abbas was the most impressive as he bowled some of the hardest overs and finished with both wickets and credit. Following a first over in which he was the target of a powerplay by New Zealand, he came back and gave an instant, much needed breakthrough when the explosive Robinson miscued him into the night sky.
Abbas’s last over, the penultimate over of the innings, was the best of the lot for some reason, even though he wasn’t asked to score his entire quota. Abbas took two wickets and gave up only five runs with a combination of cutters, hard lengths, and brilliant yorkers when New Zealand was being hauled back. Babar Azam could have wondered why he hadn’t employed Abbas for the entire four innings after seeing his 3 for 20 stats.
Perhaps fitting for an all-rounder like Shadab Khan, who hasn’t bowled a single delivery in a T20I innings, is the fact that he was the driving force behind Pakistan’s best fielding performance. Mark Chapman, Pakistan’s go-to guy on trips such as this one, hit a wide ball over mid-off in the 14th over of the New Zealand innings. At least that was his belief. Shadab shifted to his left and sprang skyward with a deadly feline grace. He was holding on to the ball with his left hand when the ball’s speed pushed his right hand off. The crowd was in disbelief for some seconds before realizing what had happened, but it hindered New Zealand’s efforts to reduce death rates.
The New Zealand team in Pakistan has a Super Smash vibe to it, especially with the seam-bowling combination of Sears and O’Rourke. Although O’Rourke had not yet made his T20I debut and Sears had played eleven T20Is prior to this trip, the two were crucial in putting an early stop to Pakistan’s attack. O’Rourke struck in his opening over, luring Babar into a cover drive, and the additional bounce saw him paddle it to cover-point on the full while Pakistan was concentrating on Jacob Duffy.
In the first over, Saim Ayub, the other opener, was also removed by him. When he forced Usman Khan out of Pakistan, Sears kept New Zealand going strong. Michael Bracewell relied on the duo to provide pressure when necessary since they were able to keep the runs quiet at the same time. This pattern persisted throughout the innings. After coming on later, the duo combined for figures of 8-0-54-5, giving their captain the wickets of Iftikhar and Zaman to end the match.
1st Innings
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2nd Innings
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