It was not a captaincy debut to remember for Pakistan speedster Shaheen Afridi as Pakistan took on New Zealand in the first T20I of the three-match series at the Eden Park in Wellington in New Zealand. New Zealand's Finn Allen was in no mood to give him any sort of leeway given that it was his first match as the skipper of the Pakistan T20I side as he smashed the left-arm pacer for five successive boundaries.
While Shaheen did start as his usual self- disciplined and hitting the right lengths. He even managed to take a wicket in his first over as he has done so often in his limited-overs career. He removed Devon Conway of the second ball of the match which meant an early advantage for Pakistan with New Zealand 1/1 after the opening over.
However, it wasn't quite the tale throughout the match. Shaheen came in to bowl the second over and this time around, he was taken to the cleaners. He conceded 6, 4, 4, 4 and 6 in his next five balls before Shaheen finally managed to nail a yorker to produce a dot ball. Overall, he went for 24 runs in that over- the most expensive one of his T20I career till now.
Take a look at the brilliant stroke making from Fill Allen off Afridi here:
New Zealand Beat Pakistan By 46 Runs In 1st T20I
Even though Allen was dismissed by Abbas Afridi on 34, New Zealand went on to post a massive 226/8 batting first riding on half-centuries from captain Kane Williamson (57 off 42) and Daryl Mitchell's quickfire 61 off 27 with Mark Chapman also chipping in with a cameo worth 26 off 11. In the run chase, Babar Azam top-scored with 57 off 35 but that wasn't enough to take Pakistan over the line as they fell short by 46 runs. Tim Southee (4/25) was the pick of the bowlers for New Zealand but it was Mitchell who was adjudged the Player of the Match.