Daily Times

Fast bowler Haris Rauf took a career best 4-22 to help Pakistan defeat New Zealand by five wickets and record their second successive win in the Twenty20 World Cup on Tuesday.

Boosted by their brilliant performance in the 10-wicket rout of arch-rivals India on Sunday, Rauf inspired the 2009 champions to victory in front of a boisterous Sharjah crowd mainly comprised of Pakistani expats. Devon Conway and Daryl Mitchell both scored 27 for New Zealand, while skipper Kane Williamson made a laborious 25 off 26 balls as New Zealand were held to a below-par 134-8. Veteran Shoaib Malik (27) and Asif Ali (26) came together with Pakistan wobbling at 87-5 and led the team to their target in 18.4 overs. Pakistan had lost skipper Babar Azam to Tim Southee — bowled for nine in the sixth over — as the paceman took his 100th wicket in his 84th T20 international.

He is only the third bowler behind Bangladesh’s Shakib Al Hasan (117 in 92 T20Is) and Sri Lankan Lasith Malinga (107 in 84) to take 100 or more wickets in the format. Leg-spinner Ish Sodhi trapped both Fakhar Zaman (11) and Mohammad Rizwan leg-before to reduce Pakistan to 69-4. In between those two dismissals, Conway produced a brilliant diving catch at wide long-off to dismiss Mohammad Hafeez as he attempted to lift spinner Mitchell Santner out of the ground.

When Imad Wasim fell for 11, Pakistan still needed 47 off 31 deliveries. It was left to Asif — maligned for his continuous failures — to hit two sixes off Southee in the 17th over to bring down the target to 24 off the last three. Malik reduced that to nine in two overs by hitting a four and a six off Santner. Asif then smacked Trent Boult for six before hitting the winning runs. It was Rauf who did much of the damage with the ball against New Zealand — sent into bat on a sluggish pitch — improving on his previous best of 3-29, also against the same opponents last year. Babar praised his bowlers.

“It’s always good to win, we’ll take this confidence forward. The way the bowlers, Shaheen and Haris Rauf especially bowled was very impressive,” said Babar. Williamson said the loss was disappointing.

“It’s very disappointing at the end,” he said. “Unfortunately we couldn’t nail things towards the back end but we were up against a very good side.” Pakistan applied the pressure right from the start as left-arm paceman Shaheen Shah Afridi, whose three wickets against India earned him player of the match, bowled a maiden first over.