Pakistan vs New Zealand, T20I Series: Interesting Facts and Figures
After the series sweep against Australia, Pakistan were high on confidence before coming to the series against the Kiwis. On the other hand, the New Zealand side had last played an international Twenty-20 match about 8 months ago. However, with plenty of T20 specialists in the squad, the Black Caps were expected to pose a tougher challenge to Pakistan than the Aussies.
The first contest was quite close with Pakistan winning it by just 2 runs. With 149 to chase, Colin Munro made a brilliant 58 while Ross Taylor played a handy inning of 42* but their efforts went in vain as New Zealand fell short by 2 runs.
The win in the second match was more convincing than the previous one for Pakistan. New Zealand made 153/7 in 20 overs batting first. Munro and Corey Anderson both scored 44 for the team. With useful contributions from Babar Azam, Asif Ali and Mohammed Hafeez, Pakistan managed to chase the target with 6 wickets remaining.
In the third and final match of the series, Babar Azam, Mohammad Hafeez and Shadab Khan played key roles as Pakistan completed their second consecutive clean sweep. They trounced New Zealand by 47 runs to clinch the series by 3-0, their 11th consecutive series win.
Here, in this article, we look at some interesting stats from the series.
886 - Total runs scored in the series
70 - Number of fours hit in the series, with Babar Azam hitting the most (12)
27 - Number of sixes hit in the series; Mohammad Hafeez topped the list with 6 sixes
0 - No century scored in the series
4 - Number of half-centuries scored in the series (one each by Mohammad Hafeez, Colin Munro, Babar Azam and Kane Williamson)
79 - Number of runs scored by Babar Azam in the 3rd T20I, the highest individual score in the series
132 - Number of runs scored by Mohammad Hafeez in the series, the most by any player
132.0 - Batting average of Mohammad Hafeez in the series, the most by any player
166/3 - Pakistan's score in the 3rd T20I, the highest team total in the series
94 - Number of runs added by Mohammad Hafeez and Babar Azam for the 2nd wicket in the 3rd T20I, the highest partnership for any wicket in the series
36 - Number of wickets that fell in the series
3/20 - Bowling figures of Shaheen Afridi in the 2nd T20I, the best by any bowler in the series
10.50 - Bowling average of Waqas Maqsood in the series, the least by any bowler in the series
4.71 - Bowling economy of Mohammad Hafeez in the series, the least by any bowler in the series
5.5 - Bowling strike rate of Waqas Maqsood in the series, the best by any bowler in the series
Individual Records
Babar Azam completed 1,000 T20I runs in his 26th match (during the third T20I), becoming the quickest batsmen to do so. He broke Virat Kohli's record who got there in his 29th match.
Shadab Khan has now 28 T20I wickets from 19 matches in 2018. This is the highest no. of wickets taken by a bowler in T20Is in this calendar year.
Babar Azam and Colin Munro completed 500 runs in T20I matches in 2018 calendar year.