New Zealand ease past Pakistan for 2-0 lead in rain-shortened contest

Black Caps openers club 7 sixes in the first two overs in the chase to set a record

New Zealand have secured a 2-0 lead in the T20 series against Pakistan with an easy 5-wicket victory in a rain-curtailed second game, riding on superb powerplay performances with both the ball and the bat in Dunedin.

Kiwi bowlers Jacob Duffy, Ben Sears and Ish Sodhi, each of whom grabbed two wickets, made early inroads to knock the breath out of Pakistan's batting after choosing to field first at the University Oval on Tuesday.

Skipper Salman Agha, however, made a swift 28-ball 46 before Shadab Khan (26) and Shaheen Shah Afridi (22*) carried Pakistan to 135 for 9 in the 15-overs-a-side game.

New Zealand openers Tim Seifert (45 off 22 balls) and Finn Allen (38 off 16) then clubbed a record 7 sixes in two overs and blazed away to 66 in only 28 deliveries to virtually kill off any hope Pakistan had of levelling the series after their humiliating 9-wicket defeat in Christchurch.

Afridi started off with a maiden in the first over. But Allen made up with 3 sixes in the second before Seifert launched 4 over the ropes in the third.

No other full member country of the International Cricket Council has hit so many sixes in the first three overs of a game.

Mohammad Ali (1-34), Jahandad Khan (1-16) and Haris Rauf (2-20) tried to arrest the New Zealand march, but the hosts coasted to the win with 11 balls to spare.

New Zealand now need just one win in the remaining three games to clinch the series.