New Zealand recorded a dominant 46-run win against Pakistan in the first T20I match at Auckland's Eden Park on Friday, January 12. In-form Daryl Mitchell and captain Kane Williamson scored quickfire fifties to help the Kiwis score 226 runs while batting first and then Tim Southee's four wickets bundle out Pakistan on just 180.
Mitchell carries his rich form in T20Is by smashing 61 runs off just 27 balls and returning Williamson scored 57 off 42 balls. New Zealand put in a total of 226/8, the biggest-ever T20I total against Pakistan by any team, to gain an advantage despite losing the toss.
Pakistan also started well with new opener Saim Ayub smashing 27 off just 8 balls and the former captain Babar Azam scoring 57 off just 35 balls. But impressive bowling from veteran Tim Southee helped the Kiwis earn a comfortable win to take a 1-0 lead in the five-match series.
Apart from New Zealand's biggest T20I score record against Pakistan, the game produced other milestones as well. Babar Azam's fifty helped him surpass Martin Guptill in the list of players with the most T20I runs. Babar has now scored 3542 runs in 105 T20I matches and is only behind Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma in the scoring chart.
With four wickets today, the veteran pacer Tim Southee became the first-ever cricketer to complete 150 wickets in the shortest format of the game. Southee has now ten wickets more than his closest rival Shakib Al Hasan in the T20I bowling records.
New Zealand Playing XI: Finn Allen, Devon Conway (wk), Kane Williamson (c), Daryl Mitchell, Glenn Phillips, Mark Chapman, Adam Milne, Matt Henry, Tim Southee, Ish Sodhi, Ben Sears
Pakistan Playing XI: Mohammad Rizwan, Saim Ayub, Babar Azam, Fakhar Zaman, Iftikhar Ahmed, Azam Khan (wk), Aamer Jamal, Usama Mir, Shaheen Afridi (c), Abbas Afridi, Haris Rauf
