Mohammad Nawaz's unbeaten knock of 38 helped Pakistan defeat New Zealand by five wickets in the tri-series final at Hagley Oval in Christchurch on Friday. This victory for Pakistan before the T20 World Cup is going to boost their morale.
READ: Gujarat Titan’s Shubman Gill to walk the ramp for the first time, shares exciting news with fans
Haider Ali scored 31 runs in 15 balls with the help of three fours and two sixes and Mohammad Nawaz played an unbeaten knock of 38 off 22 balls. Apart from this, Iftikhar Ahmed also played an innings of 25 not out off 14 balls.
.
Chaing a target of 164, Pakistan got off to a decent start as their openers Mohammad Rizwan and Babar Azam scored 28 runs under 4 overs. However, Michael Bracewell sent Azam back to the pavilion after scoring just 15 runs off 14 deliveries. Shan Masood then came out to bat on the crease, but was unable to make a big score and departed for 19 runs.
Michael Bracewell bagged his second wicket of the innings as he dismissed Masood in the 11th over of the innings and in the very next over, Ish Sodhi dismissed Mohammad Rizwan. The 56-run partnership stand for the fourth wicket between Haider Ali and Mohammad Nawaz came to an end in the 16th over as Tim Southee removed Ali.
Nawaz continued the carnage as he hammered Ish Sodhi for 25 runs, smashing three sixes. Pakistan lost two wickets putting the hosts under some pressure. Nawaz took the equation down to 11 runs from 12 balls. In the last over of the match the Men in Green only needed four runs and Iftikhar Ahmed closed the match with a huge six to lift the T20 Tri-Series trophy.
READ: IND-W vs SL-W live streaming: When and where to watch India vs Sri Lanka Women's Asia Cup final match
Pakistan captian Babar Azam did an MS Dhoni by walking out of trophy celebrations only to return to arrange the group photo minutes later after beating New Zealand in the closely-fought tri-series final in Christchurch on Friday.
Legendary India captain Dhoni had made this his trademark. Whenever India won a major trophy under his captaincy, he never used to take centrestage during the trophy celebrations. Most of the time, he used walk away, letting the young guns celebrate.
All three teams will now leave for Australia to take part in the 8th edition of the T20 World Cup.
