10.24pm That's all from Auckland from tonight. Hope you enjoyed our coverage of this second T20I. See you all for the deciding T20I this weekend. This is Sreshth Shah, signing off. Adios!
10.20pm Fakhar Zaman is the Man of the Match. He says: "First win after a long time, so very happy. The wicket was much better than the first game. We took our time and after 2-3 overs we played our shots. Our plan was to survive the Powerplay today. We did that, and we got the result. Enjoying my form at the moment."
Now the winning captain Sarfraz Ahmed. He says: "Credit goes to our openers Fakhar and Shehzad. They did the job. We knew 170 was the par score, and we knew it we bat well we'll reach that far. We wanted to score 200, that's why we wanted to bat first. Credit goes to all bowlers as well. Not easy to bowl in such a small ground. Not easy captaining on a ground like this, so it's very difficult to play in Auckland."
Here's Kane Williamson, the losing captain. He says: "Pakistan were excellent in all departments, and we were poor in all departments. When you catch Pakistan when they're on fire, this is the result we get. Santner and Wheeler really came off today, so we do have belief in the camp, but just didn't come off today. Bowling at the death is always tough, but overall the seamers have been bowling well. Simply, they got a lot of runs and we didn't. Looking forward to the final game. A bit of a shame tonight. We pride ourselves on our performances, but it's important to move on. It's a great opportunity to figure what went wrong, but after all it's T20 cricket."
Ahmed Hayat: "The lesson learnt from this match for Pakistan is that they must play game appropriate players. This match they played t20 specialists the likes of Ahmed Shahzad and Fakhar Zaman. The top order set up ripples of confidence for the rest of the team and they came out and did their jobs like the cornered tigers they always have been. Pakistan must continue to learn to play of bouncier pitches and they will come back to being number 1 again"
10.12pm Comprehensive victory for Pakistan at Eden Park to tie the series 1-1. Handshakes all around and smiles in the Pakistan camp for the first time this tour. Pakistan finally manage to halt their 13-match losing streak against New Zealand. We'll be back with the presentation ceremony in a jiffy. A tough decision for the adjudicators of the Man-of-the-Match award.
Mansoor : "@Milan, that's not uncommon. Their tail was not under pressure as the match was already gone. So they played naturally and got some runs. Wouldn't be same if the match was tighter. Pressure dictates a lot. "
Karthik K: "50 over match between Ban vs SL finished before this T20 game!! "
Milan: "when your top 6 wickets fall for just 64, reaching 150 plus with your tailenders chasing such mammoth target, just proves the quality of NZ team at the moment. Just wonder if 1 top order had performed, it could have been no. 14 (loss) for Pakistan against 'em."
IS Sodhi c Babar Azam b Faheem Ashraf 15 (19m 12b 1x4 1x6) SR: 125.00
CJ: "Two positives for NZ today. Finally a challenging opponent and Santner finally showing some of the potential he has always left behind "
Umer: "Let the captain alone.. he will learn. When players dnt mind why we r complaining......"
SHA Rance c Fakhar Zaman b Faheem Ashraf 1 (3m 2b 0x4 0x6) SR: 50.00
Amir leaves the field after completing his final over. Here's Faheem for his final over
END OF OVER:18 | 8 Runs 1 Wkt | NZ: 153/8 (49 runs required from 12 balls, RR: 8.50, RRR: 24.50)
- Seth Rance1 (1b)
- Ish Sodhi15 (10b)
- Mohammad Amir4-0-28-2
- Hasan Ali4-0-27-1
sheeraz955: "Is this any nature science or what? whenever top order fails in any match, lower order performs and other way round is also true" -- Haha, no there isn't. Bangladesh were all out for 82 just an hour or so back against SL in Dhaka
MJ Santner c †Sarfaraz Ahmed b Mohammad Amir 37 (43m 28b 4x4 0x6) SR: 132.14
CRICKET FAN: "@ Faisal Sir this is a Pakistan team to lead them it's not easy Sarfaraz attitude to them is similiar to Imran Khan in 90's. "
Osama Tabasher: "@Faisal Kamal: Sanjay manjaraekar says that imran khan got disappointed when his bowler gave an easy single to sanjay, that too with manjaekar playing on 99. Letting go of small things make you lose big games."
shayan: "@faisal kamal: the margin of error against teams like NZ is very slim. You have to cover all areas and have to be strict. I am sure there is no hard feeling inside Sarfaraz but he has been under pressure in the series right from the beginning. "
Naeem Qamar: "@Faisal, yes specially when Sarfraz own performance is not that good in the series. His keeping is also not upto mark. Last Legbye 4 where he didn't even tried to stop the ball is showing his performance."
END OF OVER:17 | 10 Runs | NZ: 145/7 (57 runs required from 18 balls, RR: 8.52, RRR: 19.00)
- Ish Sodhi10 (8b)
- Mitchell Santner35 (25b)
- Hasan Ali4-0-27-1
- Rumman Raees3-0-27-1
around the wicket for his final over
END OF OVER:16 | 11 Runs | NZ: 135/7 (67 runs required from 24 balls, RR: 8.43, RRR: 16.75)
- Mitchell Santner33 (23b)
- Ish Sodhi2 (4b)
- Rumman Raees3-0-27-1
- Hasan Ali3-0-17-1
Faisal Kamal: "Really don't like the way Sarfraz talk to the players when things go south. First Rumman now Hassan. The way he celebrated and ignored says a lot. Odd bad ball can happen, scolding on every mistake is never going to help."