Captain Southee’s perfect record

New skipper, no problem for New Zealand as Tim Southee showed this cricket captaincy lark can be a breeze.

Standing in for Kane Williamson, who was rested with a minor side injury, Southee made it two wins from two at the helm this summer in New Zealand’s seven-wicket victory over Pakistan in the first Twenty20 international yesterday.

After snaring 3-36 as skipper in the Black Caps’ 47-run T20 win over West Indies in Nelson last month, he led strongly with the ball at Wellington’s Westpac Stadium to take 3-13 in their demolition of Pakistan for 105.

‘‘It’s pretty easy when the guys play like that. A strength of ours throughout the season has been assessing the conditions and we did that brilliantly,’’ he said.

Conditions were undoubtedly tricky on the drop-in, and after Pakistan’s Sarfraz Ahmed called incorrectly at the toss the tourists were never in it.

Southee and new ball partner Seth Rance (3-26), in for a resting Trent Boult, seized control against some reckless Pakistan batting as they crumbled to 38-6.

Then man-of-the-match Colin Munro stepped up with 49 not out off 43 balls to guide home a chase that wobbled with Martin Guptill and Glenn Phillips both departing at 8-2. Tom Bruce stepped up the pace to guide Munro through then Ross Taylor unfurled three straight boundaries off Hasan Ali in a busy knock to seal it.

‘‘We saw the guys that tried to hit across the line, it was difficult on that wicket. With the way Guppy got out he tried to do the same, but it was a really mature innings from Colin, different from the way he’s played through the season so that was pleasing to see him play a style that the team needed,’’ Southee said.

Munro’s strike rate of 114 was easily his slowest of the home Twenty20 summer and from four innings he has 272 runs at an average of 90.67 and strike rate of 174.

The win was New Zealand’s 13th straight in completed matches and they’ll be at short odds to make it 14 at Eden Park in Auckland on Thursday.

Pakistan coach Mickey Arthur was a frustrated man again, after laying into his top order batsmen for their performance in the 5-0 ODI series whitewash.

‘‘We tried to shake things up and trained in different ways to try and get the best out of our top order but again it didn’t happen. Incredibly frustrating,’’ he said.

‘‘We just didn’t play well enough.‘‘ Arthur said of the pitch: ‘‘I’m not sure it was a great wicket…. but it wasn’t a 105 all out wicket.’’