Twitter Reactions: Jacob Duffy's dream debut rattles Pakistan as New Zealand win the first T20I comfortably

The first T20I between New Zealand and Pakistan took place on Friday at the Eden Park with both the sides missing their superstar players. Mitchell Santner led the Kiwis and even then, the hosts proved to be too good for the touring party. Pakistan clearly missed their regular skipper Babar Azam who has been ruled out of the entire series with a thumb injury.

New Zealand’s debutant Jacob Duffy ran through Pakistan’s top-order after they opted to bat first. He sent back the likes of Mohammad Rizwan, Abdullah Shafique and Mohammad Hafeez with not much on the board to reduce the visitors to 20/4 in the fifth over itself. Ish Sodhi then trapped Khushdil Shah to put them into deeper trouble at 39/6 in the 9th over.

Shadab Khan, the stand-in skipper, then took control of the proceedings to first add 40 runs with Imad Wasim and then 35 runs with Faheem Ashraf. The trio did well to keep Pakistan in the game. Shadab took the attack to Sodhi hitting him for two sixes in his final over while Ashraf also disturbed Duffy’s figures smacking him for runs in his last over.

His assault propelled Pakistan to a fighting total of 153 runs for the loss of nine wickets after 20 overs. Apart from Duffy’s 4/33, Scott Kuggeleijn also shone with the ball returning with the figures of 3/27.

Mark Chapman and Seifert bat well to take New Zealand home

In response, New Zealand also lost a couple of early wickets. Shaheen Afridi and Haris Rauf looked menacing with the new ball at their pace. The duo dismissed Martin Guptill and Devon Conway early and at 21/2, things were in balance. Then Tim Seifert batted well to hold one end up along with Glenn Phillips as they stitched 44 runs for third wicket.

The latter got out to Haris Rauf in the 10th over which gave real hope for Pakistan with the required run-rate also climbing up. But Mark Chapman came out and played his shots while Seifert was mature in his approach right through the chase. Both the batsmen churned out boundaries when needed and their partnership virtually confirmed New Zealand’s dominance in the game.

Though Seifert got out after scoring 57, the required run-rate had come down. However, Pakistan kept on fighting out with Haris Rauf bowling well. They picked a wicket of Chapman who slammed 34 off 20 but then Jimmy Neesham and Mitchell Santner made sure that there were no more hiccups in the chase. New Zealand got to the target in the 19th over to seal the deal and took the lead of 1-0 in the three-match series.

Here’s how Twitter reacted: