Neesham, Seifert star as New Zealand complete 4-1 thumping of Pakistan

Pakistan sink to another tame defeat in an extremely one-sided contest

Jimmy Neesham grabbed 5 wickets and Tim Seifert clubbed a scintillating 97 off 38 balls as New Zealand pummeled Pakistan by 8 wickets to seal a comprehensive 4-1 T20 series win at home.

New Zealand needed only 10 overs to get past Pakistan’s measly 128 at the Sky Stadium in Wellington on Wednesday.

Michael Bracewell’s decision to bowl first paid off when Will O’Rourke (0-29) and Jacob Duffy (2-18) kept things tight up front. Duffy and Ben Sears (1-25) grabbed three wickets early to reduce Pakistan to 27 for 3 in the powerplay.

Neesham’s first wicket left Pakistan teetering on 52 for 5 as the batting order scattered around captain Salman Agha (51), who provided the only resistance with the bat for Pakistan with Shadab Khan (28). They paired in a 34-ball 54-run stand.

But soon after Shadab gave in to pressure and Agha made his fifty, Pakistan limped to 128 as Neesham ruthlessly wrapped up the tail. Pakistan lost four wickets for 22 runs in their last 4 overs.

Jahandad Khan (0-43) opened Pakistan’s bowling conceding 18 runs as Finn Allen (27) began raining boundaries, no matter who came on to bowl. The pair blazed away to 92 in an incredible display of batting fireworks in the powerplay.

They studded the innings with 11 boundaries and as many sixes in an unforgiving assault which stopped with Sufiyan Muqeem’s (2-6) tossed up delivery that sneaked through the gates of Finn to provide Pakistan some measure of relief.

Sufiyan then took out Mark Chapman (3) with a quicker one and provided impetus to introduce more spin with New Zealand only 25 runs adrift.

But Shadab’s introduction showed the error in that deduction as Seifert bludgeoned 4 sixes in his over to consign Pakistan to the miserable defeat in a one-sided contest.