The New Zealand vs Pakistan Twenty20 International in Hamilton saw a brilliant display from the hosts as they thrashed Pakistan and took an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series. Tim Seifert and Kane Williamson were the stars as New Zealand’s unbeaten 2020 summer continued. However, there was a stunning moment of brilliance off the field as a cameraman captured what is probably one of the most stunning images of 2020. On his camera, he managed to capture Jupiter and Saturn close to each other in a rare celestial delight for individuals.
Jupiter and Saturn are two slow-moving planets. When Jupiter, which orbits the sun once every 12 years, overtakes the even slower-moving Saturn, their visual convergence is called a Great Conjunction. Even though this happens in every 20 years, sometimes the pairing appears too close to the sun to be seen. The two planets will appear so close that a pinkie finger at arm's length will easily cover both of them in the sky. In India, they will be visible around an hour after the sunset between 6:30 and 7:30 pm in the southwest sky. If someone watches it through a telescope, Jupiter's four moons can also be seen. The conjunction also coincides with the longest day (December 21) in the year as the sun reaches a point where it appears to shine farthest to the south of the equator over the Tropic of Capricorn, marking the start of the winter solstice.
This year is the closest Jupiter and Saturn have gotten since 1623, and because of the timing of that one, happening right at sunset and only 14 years after Galileo made his telescope, people probably didn’t notice, according to Earth Sky.This event is also called heliocentric conjunction as the two gas giants of our solar system will align with the sun. Skygazers will be able to spot the planets in the night sky by looking towards the southwest. People may confuse it with reddish Mars as well, which has a similar brightness towards the eastern sky. This stunning visual deserves kudos to the cameraman.
New Zealand dominant
New Zealand won the second Twenty20 International by nine wickets thanks to Tim Seifert’s 84 and a brilliant 50 from Kane Williamson, who came back for national duty after becoming a proud father to a baby girl. Mohammad Hafeez starred for Pakistan with a magnificent unbeaten 99 as Pakistan continued to struggle without their talismanic captain Babar Azam.
Babar Azam has also been ruled out of the first Test against New Zealand at the Bay Oval in Mount Maunganui and New Zealand named a 13-man squad for the Test. Mitchell Santner beat Ajaz Patel to New Zealand's 13-man squad for the two-Test series against Pakistan, starting on December 26. New Zealand head coach Gary Stead revealed it was the combination of Santner's all-round skills as well as the lack of game time for Ajaz that led the think-tank to such a decision as New Zealand look to make a late push for a spot in the World Test Championship Final.
India’s horror loss to Australia and a prospect of a potential series defeat makes New Zealand one of the contenders for a spot in the ICC World Test Championship final in June 2021 at Lord’s.
