Muhammad Hafeez became the oldest batsman to score a half-century in T20 cricket

 

Muhammad Hafeez

All-rounder played an unbeaten innings of 99 against New Zealand at the age of 40 years and 64 days.

 Former national team captain Mohammad Hafeez has become the oldest batsman to score a half-century in T20 cricket. At the age of 40 years and 64 days, Hafeez played an unbeaten 99 in the second T20 against New Zealand in Hamilton, the 14th half-century of his T20 career. He also became the oldest player to score a half-century in Twenty20 Internationals, ahead of Malta's Heinrich Gerak, who scored 91 against Bulgaria.

It may be recalled that in the second match of the three-match T20 series, New Zealand defeated Pakistan by 9 wickets to win the series. In the second T20 being played in Hamilton, national team captain Shadab Khan decided to bat after winning the toss.

The openers of the national team could not give a big score to the team and Haider Ali was dismissed for 8 runs on the total score of 16. Abdullah Shafiq returned to the pavilion without scoring a run.

Mohammad Rizwan and Mohammad Hafeez led the team's score, but on a total score of 33, Mohammad Rizwan scored 22 runs and was hit by Tim Southee's ball. After losing 3 wickets for 33 runs, captain Shadab Khan came to support the national team, but he too was dismissed for just 4 runs on a total score of 56. Senior batsmen Mohammad Hafeez and Khushdal Shah batted responsibly and completed 100 runs for the national team.

Playing aggressively, Mohammad Hafeez completed a half-century, the partnership of the two batsmen was broken at a total score of 119 runs and Khushdal Shah was caught on the boundary in an attempt to taste, Faheem Ashraf also scored only 4 runs. Returning, Mohammad Hafeez hit 2 fours and a six in the last over to take the national team's score to 163 but due to the completion of the over, Hafeez could not complete his first T20 century with just one run. Southee took 4 wickets while James Neshim and Ash Sodhi took 1 wicket each.

New Zealand's Martin Guptill and Tim Seifert started the innings aggressively, Guptill returned to the pavilion to score 21 off 11 balls. Tim Seifert and Kiwi captain Ken Williamson continued to play aggressively and reached the target of 164 for the loss of one wicket just four balls before the end of the 20th over. Tim Seifert scored 84 off 63 balls while Ken Williamson scored 57 off 42 balls.

The only wicket for Pakistan was taken by Faheem Ashraf. Hosts New Zealand won the three-match T20 series 0-2. No changes were made to the national team in the second T20 match. The Kiwis have made four changes to the match, with captain Ken Williamson representing the team, while Kyle Jameson, Tim Southee and Trent Bolt have also joined the hosts.

It should be noted that in the first match of the series on December 18, the host New Zealand defeated Pakistan by 5 wickets to take a 1-0 lead in the series. The Pakistan team for the match includes Shadab Khan (captain), Mohammad Rizwan, Abdullah Shafiq, Haider Ali, Mohammad Hafeez, Khushdal Shah, Emad Wasim, Fahim Ashraf, Wahab Riaz, Shaheen Shah Afridi and Haris Rauf, while the New Zealand team. Ken Williamson (captain), Martin Guptill, Tim Seifert, Devon Conway, Glenn Phillips, James Neesham, Kyle Jamieson, Scott Caglian, Tim Southee, Trent Bolt and Ash Sodhi.