Twitter Reactions: Mitchell-Phillips take New Zealand 4-0 up after Afridi's menacing spell

New Zealand stamped their authority on Pakistan in the fourth T20I of the five-match series as they beat them by seven wickets on Friday, January 19 at Hagley Oval, Christchurch. After being put in to bat first, Pakistan posted a decent total of 158/5 in their allotted 20 overs riding on a brilliant knock by Mohammad Rizwan of 90* (63). In reply, New Zealand chased down the target in 18.1 overs.

The hosts didn’t get off to a great start in their chase as Shaheen Afridi wreaked havoc with the new ball dismissing in-form Finn Allen (8 off 4) in the first over itself. The left-arm seamer further accounted for Allen's opening partner Tim Seifert dismissing him for a golden duck in the first over itself to leave the Kiwis reeling at 10/2 in the first over.

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Afridi (3/34) further got rid of Will Young (4 off 8) in the third over to leave the Kiwis on 20/3 after 2.4 overs. Seeing their team in misery, Daryl Mitchell (72* off 44) and Glenn Phillips (70* off 52) got involved in a massive 139-run stand for the fourth wicket and took their team home with 11 balls to spare.

Mohammad Rizwan was the lone warrior in Pakistan's innings

Earlier in the day, Pakistan got off to a terrible start losing their opener Saim Ayub (1 off 6) in the second over with five runs on the board. After the early blow, Mohammad Rizwan and Babar Azam (19 off 11) stabilized the innings with their 51-run stand off 31 balls. Adam Milne came to the rescue for his side dismissing Babar in the seventh over to break the stand.

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Fakhar Zaman (9 off 15), Sahibzada Farhan (1 off 2) and Iftikhar Ahmed (10 off 14) failed to get going further mounting the pressure on Rizwan. However, the wicketkeeper-batter didn’t succumb to pressure and played a brilliant knock of 90* (63) to take his team to 158/5. Matt Henry (2/22) and Lockie Ferguson (2/27) picked two wickets each for New Zealand.

Meanwhile, X was abuzz with reactions on New Zealand’s win. Here are some of the posts: