Short scoreboard

Having refined their Twenty20 run chases, batting first will be the temptation for New Zealand’s cricketers against Pakistan with the lure of England’s McLean Park record total and a 12th successive home win.

Napier hosts its third men’s T20 international at 7pm tonight – forecast for a 25degC maximum and a hint of an evening shower – with the Black Caps chasing a 3-0 series sweep before heading to Mt Maunganui for Christmas.

Sunday’s nine-wicket win in Hamilton was the Black Caps’ 11th straight at home, across the formats, since their seven-run defeat to India in the fifth T20 at Bay Oval on February 2.

From there, either side of cricket’s hiatus for a global pandemic, the Ws were chalked up in three ODIs and two tests against India, two T20s and two tests against West Indies, and the Auckland and Hamilton T20 victories over Pakistan.

‘‘It’s amazing. If you looked at the start of the season to be in this position, everyone would have grabbed it straight away,’’ said batting coach Luke Ronchi.

After losing by a combined 8-2 to England and India last summer in T20 (including three super over defeats), the 4-0 recent run restored some confidence in the shortest format to the world’s sixth-ranked side.

Three of those victories were successful chases after devastating bowling spells by Lockie Ferguson (against West Indies at Auckland), Jacob Duffy (Pakistan at Auckland)

and Tim Southee (Pakistan at Hamilton).

Now, with allrounders Daryl Mitchell and Todd Astle likely to get their chances to impress with an eye to the T20 World Cup in India next October, batting first and testing the limits of New Zealand’s dynamic top-five is next on the list. Or, hope visiting skipper Shadab Khan calls correctly again and thinks better of batting first, an odd decision on Sunday.

In their only bat-first T20 this season, Glenn Phillips’ recordbreaking knock – 108 off 51 balls – was backed by Devon Conway’s 65 not out off 37 as they posted 238-3 against West Indies.

Back in November 2019 in Napier, England’s Dawid Malan went similarly ballistic with the willow, smashing 103 not out off 51 balls. Combined with Eoin Morgan’s 91 off 41, the pair hit 13 sixes in the visitors’ 241-3 against a bowling attack of Southee, Trent Boult, Blair Tickner, Mitchell Santner, Ish Sodhi and Mitchell. The hosts were bowled out for 165 in reply.

It showed since switching to a drop-in pitch at McLean Park the runs haven’t dried up at a traditional batsman’s paradise.

Pakistan’s last visit to Napier was an ODI washout in January 2016, and a year previous before the Cricket World Cup the visiting bowlers were swatted around for 369-5 – just four short of New Zealand’s ODI ground record total against Zimbabwe in 2012.

Pakistan, meanwhile, desperately need batsmen other than veteran Mohammad Hafeez to pick their moments to set some kind of platform. The visiting pace attack of Shaheen Afridi, Haris Rauf, Faheem Ashraf and Wahab Riaz are a handy quartet but never had enough runs to defend in Hamilton as Tim Seifert (84 not out off 63) and Kane Williamson (57 not out off 42) paced the chase perfectly.

Ronchi, who succeeded Peter Fulton as batting coach, said the performances of Seifert, Phillips

What: New Zealand v Pakistan, 3rd Twenty20 international

Where: McLean Park, Napier

When: 7pm Tuesday (live on Spark Sport from 6.30pm)

TAB odds: NZ $1.39, Pakistan $2.80

At Hamilton: Pakistan 163-6 (M Hafeez 99no, M Rizwan 22; T Southee 4-21) lost to New Zealand 164-1 (19.2 overs) (T Seifert 84no, K Williamson 57no) by nine wickets. NZ lead threegame series 2-0.

and Conway, with Williamson added to the mix now, were a breath of fresh air.

‘‘It’s the intent we’re showing throughout the whole season so far in the T20s. We asked early on to show a bit more of that and to chase well. We haven’t chased well the last few years.’’