T20I WC 2022: Pakistan beats New Zealand; enters final
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Sydney: Captain Babar Azam and Mohammed Rizwan scored fifties each to lead Pakistan to the final of the ICC Men's T20I World Cup 2022 final after the men in green beat New Zealand (NZ) for seven wickets in the semifinal match here on Wednesday.
Now, Pakistan will play against the winner of the 2nd semifinal, England versus India, which is scheduled on Thursday.
NZ won the toss and elected to bat first, but they had a messy start. Daryl Mitchell (53 not out off 35) and Kane Williamson (46 off 42) powered the team, along with Devon Conway (21 off 20) and James Neesham (16 not out off 12), to 152/4.
Chasing a good total, Pakistan took out its attack mode in the powerplay overs, scoring 55/0. Pakistan had their best powerplay in the whole tournament so far. Babar, who was out of form and required 11 more runs to complete 50 runs as his total this tournament, showed a better game, scoring a half-ton, including seven boundaries.
Also, he was dropped by NZ wicketkeeper Conway in the starting, and that was a big mistake.
When boundaries flowed whenever the batters wished, Pak reached 87/0 in ten overs.
Pak's opening partnership was broken by Trent Bolt, taking Babar at 105 runs. Bolt also took Rizwan when the latter came out of the crease and tried to banish Bolt over the fences in the 17th over.
Later, Youngster Mohammad Haris played a vital knock of 30 off 26 to take Pakistan closer to victory before getting out in the second last over.
Brief scores: New Zealand 152/4 in 20 overs (Daryl Mitchell 53 not out, Kane Williamson 46; Shaheen Afridi 2/24) lost to Pakistan -153/3 in 19.1 Overs (Mohammad Rizwan 57, Babar Azam 53; Trent Boult 2/33) by 7 wickets