NZ strike familiar issues in sweep
Black Caps again fail to maintain pressure with the ball and fall away with the bat as Pakistan win series 3-0
For the Black Caps, it turns out bad things come in threes. Gary Stead’s side yesterday fell to their third straight Twenty20 defeat against Pakistan, and there were familiar themes running through the loss.
It was a third straight game where the Black Caps wasted a superb innings with the bat, a third time they couldn’t make the most of a brief period of pressure with the ball, and shambolic run-outs made unlucky appearance number three.
This time, a stellar innings from skipper Kane Williamson was left unsupported, as the Black Caps fell to a 47-run defeat, losing the series 3-0, and suffering a ninth defeat in their last 10 T20 clashes.
Williamson was at his ball-striking, innovative best in a masterclass in timing, crafting 60 from 38 balls as he dragged his side back into the match after the loss of two early wickets.
Chasing a challenging 167 for victory, Williamson gave the Black Caps a sniff. In dire straits at 32-2 in the eighth over — and Williamson scratching around on 14 off 17 balls — he rapidly accelerated, taking apart the Pakistani star spinning duo of Shadab Khan and Imad Wasim.
Balls were flayed to the boundary with beautiful precision, mixing two powerful sixes with some more sedately slayed fours, as for the first time, a successful chase looked plausible. Then the Pakistan spinners got their revenge and the Black Caps collapsed.
From 96-2, the visitors slumped to 119 all out after Williamson couldn’t clear Babar Azam at long-on off Shadab’s bowling.
Glenn Phillips needed to take over, but he fell two balls later for 26, and
it got worse from there, with six wickets falling in 17 balls as New Zealand’s batsmen couldn’t keep pace with the required rate.
“That’s just how Twenty20 is — you’ll either get incredibly close or you’ll get nowhere near,” Phillips told Radio Sport. “Kane batted superbly, he found a good rhythm, but the rest of us, we all struggled a little bit. Our playing of spin in this series could have been better, and our rotation of strike and our boundary options definitely could have been better.”
Tim Seifert picked up his second golden duck of the series, then Tim
Southee was run out without facing a ball, adding to Colin De Grandhomme’s horrendous run-out earlier in the innings, as Pakistan ripped through the tail.
It all culminated in another missed opportunity — something the Black Caps bowling attack will specifically be ruing after letting Pakistan off the hook once again.
The bowlers have been somewhat found lacking this series, failing to possess the wicket-taking threat required to fully apply pressure on a composed and experienced Pakistan batting line-up.
This time, the seam attack of Seth Rance, Southee and Lockie Ferguson executed the opening overs perfectly, bowling smartly into the pads of the Pakistan openers and restricting them to 38-1 after seven overs.
However, the slower bowlers could not match their quicker counterparts when a breakthrough was required. Ish Sodhi took a battering from Mohammed Hafeez (53 not out) and bowled only two overs, and the medium pace offerings of De Grandhomme (2-41) and Colin Munro (0-21 from two) were ruthlessly put away by Azam.
Azam became the fastest player to 1000 T20 runs, perfectly timing his innings with 79 from 58 balls, and completely removing the pressure that had been applied earlier in the innings as the hosts eased through to 166-3.
In the end, once Williamson’s resurgence was vanquished, that proved more than enough for Pakistan to continue their dominance and send the Black Caps to what is becoming a familiar feeling in this format — defeat.