UAE: Pakistan survived a steady loss of wickets on Tuesday to beat New Zealand by five wickets as veteran Shoaib Malik and Asif Ali took them over the line at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium. Shoaib and Asif put up an unbeaten stand of 48 off 23 balls which helped Pakistan chase down a target of 135 with eight balls in hand.
This is Pakistan’s second consecutive win of the tournament, having beaten arch-rivals India by 10 wickets in their opening game on Sunday. Openers Mohammad Rizwan and captain Babar Azam almost played out the powerplay once again but they could not get too many runs on the board. The partnership was broken for the first time in the tournament when Babar fell to Tim Southee. It also made the New Zealand fast bowler only the third to reach 100 wickets.
New Zealand kept the pressure on Pakistan after that, not allowing them to get any significant partnerships going until Shoaib and Asif wrestled back control of the game. Asif was subjected to two concussion tests after being hit on the head by a delivery from Southee. However, he hit a six off the first ball he faced after the second concussion test which brought the equation down to two runs needed off nine balls, which the batsmen ran off the next ball.
