NZ vs Pak 1st T20: Shadab Khan won the toss and opted to bat first at Eden Park. New Zealand vs Pakistan (NZ vs PAK) 1st T20 Live Cricket Score Updates: Pakistan and New Zealand are facing each other in the first T20 International of the three-match seried at Eden Park in Auckland today. Both the teams are missing their regular skippers has the hosts are playing under Mitchell Santner and the guests will be led by Shadab Khan. Kane Williamson is on paternity leave and Babar Azam has been sidelined from the series after fracturing his finger.
This is going to be an interesting contests as the Kiwis are coming off a 2-0 series win over West Indies in the shortest format of the game but they will be expecting a tougher test against Pakistan who have beaten them in their last five meetings. While, Pakistan return to T20 action having played eight matches in this format in 2020 and having won six of those with one defeat and one no result and they come off series wins over Bangladesh and Zimbabwe while they drew 1-1 with England in the summer.
Playing XIs:
New Zealand : Martin Guptill, Tim Seifert(w), Devon Conway, Glenn Phillips, Mitchell Santner(c), James Neesham, Mark Chapman, Scott Kuggeleijn, Ish Sodhi, Jacob Duffy, Blair Tickner
Pakistan: Mohammad Rizwan(w), Abdullah Shafique, Haider Ali, Mohammad Hafeez, Shadab Khan(c), Khushdil Shah, Imad Wasim, Faheem Ashraf, Wahab Riaz, Shaheen Afridi, Haris Rauf
Rizwan who was dropped by Duffy earlier in the over, finally got him out. Duffy has his second wicket now - turning out to be a dream start for Duffy. Rizwan c Glenn Phillips b Jacob Duffy 17(17) [4s-3]
Pakistan 20/2
Haider Ali is the new man in after Shafique's wicket. Rizwan on the other hand is looking in great touch.
Pakistan 16/1 in 3 overs
Abdullah Shafique and Mohammad Rizwan opened for Pakistan and Shafique got out for a duck. Rizwan have played first over and hit 8 off 9 balls. Jacob Duffy and Mitchell Santner are bowling for New Zealand.
Pakistan 8/1 in 2 overs
Mitchell Santner - Looks like a good wicket, not too worried about losing the toss. We have a couple of changes - Toss Astle misses out. so does Doug Bracewell. Jacob Duffy will make his debut tonight. We know we're up against a quality side and looking forward to the challenge.
Shadab Khan - We will bat first. It's a proud moment for me and my family, we'll miss Babar though. We have prepared very well for today's game
Hello and welcome to the T20 action between New Zealand and Pakitan. It's the first match of the three-match series. Pakistan's skipper Shadab Khan has won the toss and Pakistan are batting first.