New Zealand (178/7) defeat Pakistan (174/8) by 4 runs to go 2-1 up in the 5-match T20I series

[ads101]

Fakhar Zaman was dropped after the first game against Netherlands, where he had another failure after a string of low scores.

You want me to dig up the thread where he is getting mauled left, right and centre by the same people screaming for his return here. Pakistan fans are immature and they deserve these results due to how flaky we are with the players.

And that was Fakhar's best format. He has been a dud in T20 cricket despite playing over 7 years now, consistently in the team too might I add.

I like watching Fakhar bat, and know what he's capable of. But he blows hot and cold too many times, specially in the T20 format, for him to be once again opening the batting.

If we pair up Saim and Fakhar, can you imagine how many times we will be 2 down for nothing in the power play itself?

He failed out of the opening position t20 rightly. People forget how poor he was. It has nothing to do with an agenda.

Middle order he has been bad too. Last series was the first time I can even remember fakhar having a good series.

However he should have been given another chance opening based on improved PSL form. He became a lot more consistent in recent PSLs (apart from the last one) which might have suggested he improved in that area.

 

[Human786]

New Zealand: TA Blundell (wk), TB Robinson, D Foxcroft, MS Chapman, JDS Neesham, Michael Bracewell (c), JA Clarkson, Ish Sodhi, JA Duffy, BV Sears, W O'Rourke

Pakistan: Babar Azam (c), Saim Ayub, Usman Khan (wk), Fakhar Zaman, Iftikhar Ahmed, Shadab Khan, Imad Wasim, Usama Mir, Abbas Afridi, Mohammad Amir, Zaman Khan

running 4 minutes late my friend [ j/k ]

 

[Rana]

NZ should be brave and aim for 220

Nothing to lose

 

[Usman Chadda]

He failed out of the opening position t20 rightly. People forget how poor he was. It has nothing to do with an agenda.

Middle order he has been bad too. Last series was the first time I can even remember fakhar having a good series.

However he should have been given another chance opening based on improved PSL form. He became a lot more consistent in recent PSLs (apart from the last one) which might have suggested he improved in that area.

Failed in this PSL too.

Interesting how despite Rizwan not being available, Fakhar is batting at 4.

Let’s see how Usman bats in the top 3, or I guess the new excuse for his failures would be he is under pressure because of Babar lol

 

[hafizexpress]

Both Naseem & Afridi rested with series at 1-1 against a definitive B team - yaar yeh kya strategy hai ?

They shouldn't be required to win this series. If Pakistan thinks they have any hope of competing with the big boys in the World Cup, they should be able to comfortably take the last two games of this series with any 11

 

[The Bald Eagle]

Pakistan and New Zealand playing Xis

 

[mominsaigol]

New Zealand: TA Blundell (wk), TB Robinson, D Foxcroft, MS Chapman, JDS Neesham, Michael Bracewell (c), JA Clarkson, IS Sodhi, JA Duffy, BV Sears, W O'Rourke

Pakistan: Babar Azam (c), Saim Ayub, Usman Khan (wk), Fakhar Zaman, Iftikhar Ahmed, Shadab Khan, Imad Wasim, Usama Mir, Abbas Afridi, Mohammad Amir, Zaman Khan

Why is abrar out? What did he do?

 

[hafizexpress]

Babar should be permanent 4. For some reason I think he'd play much better when he's under more pressure rather than having 120 balls from the get-go. This is how I found Hafeez to be as well. Leave the top order to the guns

 

[Rana]

SRH beat sense into sides with accumulators opening their innings to go hard as well now.

They’ve beat the daylights out of anchor roles in powerplay

 

[emranabbas]

i don't understand the bowling combination

4 spinners and only 3 pace bowlers

zaman is only good in death so whose leading abbas afridi and amir?

 

[Flat_Track_Bully]

Its really good they are rotating. These bilateral series are meaningless. This should be the norm from now on.

 

[Markhor]

Well the calls from the majority here have seemingly been answered:

- Babar and Rizwan no longer hogging the top 3 (due to injury than design).

- Attacking players from 2 till 6

- Amir and Imad back together

- Shaheen and Naseem rested

Credit where it's due to the team management but let's hope they deliver.

 

[Rana]

This might be the innings where Tim Robson announces himself as well

 

[emranabbas]

not happy with the bowling line up

shaheen and amir should have lead the attack amir and abbas afridi just looks so poor

 

[Markhor]

Why is abrar out? What did he do?

I wonder if they're treating Abrar with kid gloves because of his injury history.

I'm not sure about Usama Mir. He goes from the sublime to the ridiculous with nothing in between. Abrar at least provides more control.

 

[mominsaigol]

Usman khan at no 3 today and in the next game will finally answer whether his fans who supported him including me were right about playing at certain positions or if he truly was a hack and fans who didn't support him were right all along.

For my sake I hope I'm and the fans who supported UK were right. Not because I want rizzu out, because I feel UK has sacrificed too much so it'll be heart breaking.

 

[mominsaigol]

It's good that they are rotating. But abrar is a youngster who should get all games. He's the one you shouldn't drop.

I wonder if they're treating Abrar with kid gloves because of his injury history.

I'm not sure about Usama Mir. He goes from the sublime to the ridiculous with nothing in between. Abrar at least provides more control.

 

[Rana]

Why is abrar out? What did he do?

Bowled liked a proper 4 over banker spinner and put a threat to Usama Mir and Shadab’s place in the team

 

[Shafi]

Its must be very for Babar to select his rival Imad.

 

[Markhor]

i don't understand the bowling combination

4 spinners and only 3 pace bowlers

zaman is only good in death so whose leading abbas afridi and amir?

8 possible bowling options if you include Saim !

A bit overkill but I suppose all in name of experimentation.

 

[mominsaigol]

Bowled liked a proper 4 over banker spinner and put a threat to Usama Mir and Shadab’s place in the team

I get shadab cause he's mostly a batting allrounder and his threat should be imad/chacha aka 2 other allrounders.

Whybis Usama in the friends group? Both should play tbh. Usama tbf deserves a chance because he was a wicket taker during the psl. But still abrar is a newbie who needs all games.

 

[Flat_Track_Bully]

Usama should have been dropped after the WC.

 

[Rana]

Its must be very for Babar to select his rival Imad.

Some people find it very offensive to call Imad the rival of Babar.

They feel Babar’s Rival should be Kohli

 

[mominsaigol]

Some people find it very offensive to call Imad the rival of Babar.

They feel Babar’s Rival should be Kohli

Babar might as well make rizwan his rival at this point. He threatens babar's place the most .

 

[FearlessRoar]

The experiments about which Babar was talking in the press conference, I don't see any implementation of them, as it is already the 4th T20I, and I haven't seen any sort of logical experiment.

 

[emranabbas]

we are losing this all a ploy by babar trust me.

 

[ads101]

Id prefer it if we just played our strongest team. We already have too many new/returning to the side. I’d like a bowling attack of imad, shadab, Naseem, Shaheen, Amir which I think is the final attack we will go with.

However I’d prefer to bat first if possible. Just to give maximum practice to the batsmen.

 

[Nikhil_cric]

SLA /Leg spin to Robinson.

Off spin to Chapman.

These are your best matchups.

185 - traditionally a winning score at Gaddafi.

 

[RidiculousMan]

2nd ball of the match and Usman Khan already fumbled. He cannot be Pakistan's WK in the WT20

 

[Rana]

Robinson looking more confident with the series

 

[imshally81]

We are already 1 batsman short..

 

[emranabbas]

Silly of babar opening with a spinner

 

[Rana]

Belter of a track

 

[imshally81]

2nd ball of the match and Usman Khan already fumbled. He cannot be Pakistan's WK in the WT20

He is same as Umar Akmal in wicket keeper skills... Haris should play here...

 

[Omer2002]

Wah wah Imad sahib because you played well in the last two PSL games you are the saviour.....

 

[Rana]

Don’t mind this.

NZ need to score runs for our boys to chase

 

[mominsaigol]

This pitch is a belter. @Rana BABAR curated it.

No spin and a little bit of timing causes the ball to race away.

220 on par here lol

 

[Markhor]

Id prefer it if we just played our strongest team. We already have too many new/returning to the side. I’d like a bowling attack of imad, shadab, Naseem, Shaheen, Amir which I think is the final attack we will go with.

However I’d prefer to bat first if possible. Just to give maximum practice to the batsmen.

There's no upside to playing our strongest team in this series. It would be nothing more than a stats padding exercise against weakened opponents from which we'd learn nothing.

We're playing England away next month and we can go full strength there.

 

[Rana]

No slip for Amir lol

 

[Omer2002]

He is same as Umar Akmal in wicket keeper skills... Haris should play here...

what fumble the guy has bowled a pathetic over with 3 to 4 wides how can you blame the keeper he did well with the rest.

 

[FearlessRoar]

Silly of babar opening with a spinner

He has experience of opening innings with the ball

 

[Rana]

This pitch is a belter. @Rana BABAR curated it.

No spin and a little bit of timing causes the ball to race away.

220 on par here lol

There are videos of him yesterday with the curators

 

[Markhor]

Brilliant fielding from Saim Ayub.

 

[Nikhil_cric]

Imad not the most accurate and this looks this season's IPL pitch . Not the typical 185 Lahore pitch.

 

[Rana]

Blundell hit the first six of his career

Sorry one bounce 4

 

[Omer2002]

My days i know it is a road but what kind of bowling is this...

 

[RidiculousMan]

This is good. A 200+ target will test Pakistani batters rightly on this flat track

 

[Rana]

Babar and Amir awkward discussion on the field

 

[Shafi]

Looks like NZ may score 250+

 

[Rana]

This is good. A 200+ target will test Pakistani batters rightly on this flat track

Hopefully 260

I want to see Pakistan go for leather

 

[imshally81]

Good comeback ball by Amir

This is the main difference between Amir & Shaheen

 

[Rana]

Blundell is a Test specialist

According to Misbah, anyone good at Test will naturally be a good T20 player

Let’s see

 

[Ali T]

Both Amir and Imad looking a bit nervous..
I am super happy to see some rotation in the squad!

 

[Nikhil_cric]

Aamir bowling 120-130 kph cutters.

 

[Ali T]

Amir recovered second half of his fist over.
Really hope Imad does well here

 

[Rana]

Oh God Chapman is going to eat Shadab and Iftikhar on this track

 

[Markhor]

Well we might have pitches like this at the T20 World Cup. Don't assume they'll all be slow and low.

ENG scored 267 in Trinidad in their recent series in WI.

Get your big boy pants on and learn art of containing the batsmen through variations of pace, angle, deliveries etc.

 

[mominsaigol]

Both Amir and Imad looking a bit nervous..
I am super happy to see some rotation in the squad!

This my hometown, this is my pitch, and I hereby declare its a belter pitch, tennis ball pitches with no spin Involved. So babar might score today because no spin means he can hide that back foot.

Tennis ball yatzee pitches smh.

 

[Shafi]

Our batsmen cannot chase anything over 175+

 

[RidiculousMan]

Why doesn't Babar bowl with Saim Ayub in the powerplay? Just like he did with great success in PSL?

 

[Rana]

Blundell looking solid

 

[Human786]

This my hometown, this is my pitch, and I hereby declare its a belter pitch, tennis ball pitches with no spin Involved. So babar might score today because no spin means he can hide that back foot.

Tennis ball yatzee pitches smh.

par score ?

 

[Rana]

par score ?

At least 200 here

 

[hafizexpress]

What a pie for a free hit

 

[Human786]

33/0 in 3

 

[Rana]

Looks like Alex Hales reincarnated does ROBINSON

 

[mominsaigol]

Zaman khan is so useless. Why didn't they select Ali. Why would you select a 10rr bowler in psl? What did you think would happen.

 

[Ahmed216]

New ball specialist spinner tonked out of the attack by a clubbie.

 

[Rana]

What a pie for a free hit

Maybe Zaman was doing the throw downs in that PCB power hitting video

 

[mominsaigol]

par score ?

200 par score. 200 shpuld be chasuble so ain't for 220

 

[Human786]

At least 200 here

dew later ?

 

[Rana]

Robinson on fire

Babar Azam terrified!!

 

[emranabbas]

What sort of bowling combo Is this
Poor by babar

 

[Shafi]

Big loss is loading!!! Our team doesn't have any talent

 

[Rana]

What sort of bowling combo Is this
Poor by babar

The plan is to give everyone 1 over spells 5 times in a row

 

[Rana]

Abbas Afridi with his customery 10 runs in the over

 

[Human786]

series 1-1 , why were 2 main pacers '' rested '' ? 44 in 4

 

[Rana]

44-0 in 4 against New Zealand’s 8th or 9th choice openers

 

[mominsaigol]

Why even bowl abass in the PP when he's historically been terrible at it?

Or is the formula for this game bowl 1 per over and repeat the cycle

 

[Rana]

Look at the intent Blundell has

He doesn’t or isn’t even considered for T20s by NZ