Twitter Reactions: Kiwis come out of hibernation to produce a breathless encounter against Pakistan

After upsetting Australia with a clean sweep, the number one T20I side was engulfed in another important mission. Pakistan was up against New Zealand for the first game of the three-match T20I series. The Pakistani bowlers responded beautifully in this match to repeat exactly what happened against Australia but it got quite close this time around.

Batting first, they put up an okayish score on the board. The Black Caps have struggled to face the Pakistani bowlers and succumbed to the pressure until a late revival from Ross Taylor. Except for Colin Munro, no one else really delivered for the team. New Zealand lost the series opener by just two runs.

Mohammad Hafeez, Sarfraz Ahmed help Pakistan put up a decent total

For the fourth time in the last four matches, Pakistan batted first. On each of these instances, the side has put up scores between 145 and 155. The side didn’t do anything differently even though the opposition has changed. In 20 overs, they managed to amass a total of 148 runs on the board for the loss of 6 wickets.

Babar Azam suffered a rare failure at the top of the order in the match. The score was 10/2 in 3.1 overs as both the openers had to walk back to the pavilion. However, Mohammad Hafeez and skipper Sarfraz Ahmed came to the rescue. They scored 45 and 36 runs respectively. Imad Wasim, with a six and a four of the last two balls of the innings to the team to a decent total. 35 runs were scored off the last three overs of the first innings.

Colin Munro’s brief scare; Bowlers pull things back

In the chase, New Zealand opener Colin Munro provided the side with a good start with 58 off 42 deliveries. However, he lacked the support from the other batsmen. The others found it really hard to get some quick runs as the required run rate kept creeping upwards. With most of them failing, New Zealand managed to get 146 runs on the board and lost the game by only 2 runs. Ross Taylor battled hard until the end and was unbeaten on 42 runs off 26 balls and kept the hopes alive right till the end.

The Pakistani fans had a point to prove on Twitter. The whitewash against Australia was no fluke and they were truly overjoyed with this top-notch win. There was also some praise for the 30-year-old Ajaz Patel who looked impressive on his debut. The game going so close left the Twitterati on the edge of their seats.

Here is how Twitter reacted: