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WHITE FERNS VERSUS PAKISTAN - SUZIE BATES OVAL, DUNEDIN
RESULT: PAKISTAN WIN BY 10 RUNS
Sophie Devine won the toss in Dunedin and sent Pakistan in to bat at Suzie Bates Oval.
Muneeba Ali and Shawaal Zulfiqar opened up the batting for Pakistan whilst Eden Carson was the opening bowler for the White Ferns.
Ali and Zulfiqar got Pakistan off to a pretty good start with 28 runs inside the first four overs. Sophie Devine then came into the attack for her first over. She bowled three wides to start with before bowling Zulfiqar for 7 from 9.
Bismah Maroof joined Ali at the crease and they were looking like building a stable partnership before Hannah Rowe took a good catch off her bowling to have Ali walking back to the pavilion for 35 from 28.
Pakistan Nida Dar joined former captain Maroof in the middle. They did have a little interruption during their time in the middle together when Dar seemed to injure her hamstring, but luckily for Pakistan’s sake, she was able to recover and keep on batting.
3 overs after the minor interruption, Dar was out for a run-a-ball 14 with Molly Penfold grabbing her first wicket of the day. Penfold then had another two balls later with Maroof bowled for 21 from 26.
Aliya Riaz and Omaima Sohail came together and added 15 runs for the fifth wicket. Having been introduced back into the attack, Jonas bowled a tight first five balls only going for three runs before Sohail was caught out by Amelia Kerr for 6 from 12.
Fatima Sana joined Riaz in the middle and they both had the job of just attacking the New Zealand bowlers, which Riaz was very good at. 29 runs were added in 3.2 overs, with Riaz making 25 of those runs including a great shot down the ground for six off Carson.
Jonas was tasked with bowling the last over and grabbed the wicket of Sana for 4 from 8 before only allowing Pakistan a further three runs off the bat in the remaining four balls. She also conceded 3 byes and a leg bye.
Ali top scored for Pakistan with 35 and Riaz’s 32* helped them to 137/6. Penfold took 2/17 while Jonas had figures of 2/21.
The White Fern's innings didn’t get off to a good start with Bernie Bezuidenhout out on the third ball for 2, and Sadia Iqbal with the wicket.
Amelia Kerr joined Suzie Bates in the middle, but Kerr was only able to make 2 runs as she sent a ball flying into the hands of Dar and Iqbal grabbed her second of the match.
Devine joined her fellow ‘smash sister’ in the middle with the task of hopefully building a partnership between them.
Just as Bates was starting to play some good shots and finding the boundaries the White Ferns innings came to a halt as Sana struck twice in the over. First, she had the wicket of Devine, bowled for a run-a-ball five and two balls later had Bates out for a run-a-ball 18.
With the White Ferns reeling in a terrible position of 29/4, it would require the experience of Maddy Green and the youngster, Georgia Plimmer, if they had any chance of getting close.
Green and Plimmer played well together in the middle to get their side back in the game. Just as it looked like the White Ferns were on the up, Dar struck for Pakistan with Green sending the ball into the air and falling into the hands of Diana Baig for 18 from 23.
Hannah Rowe joined Plimmer in the middle, with the game slowly fading away from a White Ferns victory. To make matters worse for the White Ferns, Plimmer was run out just when it looked like she was getting going. She played a crucial middle-order knock of 28 from 28, her highest score in T20I for the White Ferns.
Rowe and Lea Tahuhu now had the almighty job of having 3.5 overs left for a win with 49 runs still required.
Tahuhu and Rowe both decided that they needed to attack the majority of the balls with boundaries desperately needed.
9 runs from the 16th over and 8 runs for the 17th over got the White Ferns into a position where they needed 33 runs from the final two overs.
With lots of boundaries needed and the Ferns needing to go at 16.5 per over, Tahuhu hit a six straight down the ground of Baig before getting a four in the over. 15 runs off the 19th over left 18 runs for victory off the last over.
The equation soon became 14 from 5 as Rowe grabbed four leg byes. With the next two balls only going for 2, a Pakistan victory looked extremely likely.
With 12 needed from the last three balls, Rowe decided to try and go for the big shot, but missed it and Sana bowled her for 33 from 24.
Penfold faced the last two balls and grabbed one run as Pakistan took a 2-0 series victory, with one game remaining.
Rowe was the top scorer with 33 and Plimmer got 28. Sana took three important wickets for Pakistan whilst Iqbal got 2.
The third and final T20I will be played at Tāhuna (Queenstown) on Saturday
White Ferns XI: Bernie Bezuidenhout (WK), Suzie Bates, Amelia Kerr, Sophie Devine ©, Maddy Green, Georgia Plimmer, Hannah Rowe, Lea Tahuhu, Molly Penfold, Eden Carson, Fran Jonas
Pakistan XI: Muneeba Ali, Shawaal Zulfiqar, Bismah Maroof, Nida Dar ©, Aliya Riaz, Omaima Sohail, Fatima Sana, Diana Baig, Najiha Alvi (WK), Nashra Sundhu, Sadia Iqbal,
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