For the first time in the history of T20I cricket, wickets fell on the first ball of both innings as New Zealand's Chad Bowes and UAE's skipper Muhammad Waseem turned out to be highly unfortunate as they bagged golden ducks.
While Bowes was undone by pacer Junaid Siddique as he tried to pull a slightly short of a length delivery and ended up getting just a feather to debutant wicketkeeper Aryansh Sharma who took a good low grab, on the other hand, the UAE skipper was trapped plumb in front of the stumps as a length delivery from Southee held its line and hit him flush on the pads. The Kiwi skipper appealed and was joined by his teammates which led to the umpire raising his finger.
Watch Chad Bowes' dismissal:
Watch Muhammad Waseem's dismissal:
The other massive record that the clash witnessed was when Aryansh drove a ball from Rachin Ravindra down the ground for a single to bring up his maiden T20I fifty. Though on debut, Aryansh batted with maturity throughout his knock (60 off 43 balls) including nine boundaries and one maximum. His knock came at a strike rate of 139.53 and kept UAE in the run chase as long as it lasted.
As soon as the right-handed batter reached his half-century, he became the first wicketkeeper-batter in the history of T20I cricket to score a fifty on debut. Barring Aryansh none of the other batters looked settled and it turned out to be a major reason that saw the hosts lose the game eventually.
The Blackcaps skipper Southee led the team from the front as he bagged a five-wicket haul in the fixture to help his team defend 155 on the board. The 2nd T20I of the series will be played at the same venue on Saturday, August 19. While the second fixture will be an opportunity for the tourists to seal the series in their favour, the hosts would look to script a remarkable comeback to keep the series alive.
