T20 sweep compounds miserable start for Black Caps
For the Black Caps, it turns out that bad things come in threes.
Gary Stead’s side fell to their third straight Twenty20 defeat at the hands of Pakistan yesterday, and there were familiar themes running throughout 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, it was a stellar innings from Kane Williamson which was left unsupported, as the Black Caps fell to an eventual 47-run defeat, losing the series 3-0, and suffering their ninth defeat in their last 10 Twenty20 clashes.
Williamson was at his ball-striking, innovative best in a master class in timing, crafting 60 from 38 balls as he dragged his side back into the clash 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 Pakistan’s 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 placed 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 clean 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 tumbling in 17 balls.
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 lineup.
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 couldn’t match their quicker counterparts.
Ish Sodhi took a battering from Mohammed Hafeez (53*) and only bowled two overs, and the medium pace offerings of De Grandhomme (2-41) and Colin Munro (0-21 from 2) were ruthlessly put away by Azam.
Azam became the fastest player to 1000 Twenty20 runs, perfectly timing his innings with 79 from 58 balls, and completely removing the pressure.