In the first semi-final of the T20 World Cup 2022, Pakistan defeated New Zealand by seven wickets at Sydney Cricket Ground on Wednesday. This win propelled the Men in Green to the finals of the multi-team tournament, which is scheduled to take place at Melbourne Cricket Ground on Sunday (November 13).
Pakistan first restricted the Black Caps to 152/4 and then chased down the target with 7 wickets in hand. Captain Babar Azam (53) and wicketkeeper-batter Mohammad Rizwan (57) formed a match-winning stand of 105 runs for the opening wicket to take the game away from New Zealand.
During the game, all-rounder Shadab Khan produced an exceptional piece of fielding to get rid of Black Caps opener Devon Conway. It all happened in the sixth over of New Zealand’s innings when Conway drove the ball to mid-off and ran for a single. Shadab collected the ball in one go and hit the bullseye at the non-striker’s end with Conway way short of his crease.
Here is the video:
https://twitter.com/pakibean/status/1590268498391240705
After the loss, New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson admitted that Pakistan outplayed them and Babar & Co. deserved to be the winners.
“We were put under pressure early. Pakistan bowled very nicely. At the halfway stage, we were feeling it was a competitive total. Wicket was a bit tough – used surface. Very disappointing not to make Pakistan work a lot harder. They were outstanding. We were outplayed. It’s a tough pill for us to swallow. Babar and Rizwan put us under pressure. If we’re honest, we wanted to be more disciplined in our areas. Pakistan certainly deserves to be the winner. There’s been a lot of good cricket. Throughout the round-robin, we played nicely. Today we weren’t at our best. We know the fickle nature of T20 cricket,” said Williamson at the post-match presentation.
