Tim Southee also won 4 of 21 in a very entertaining game
New Zealand 164 for 1 (Seifert 84 *, Williamson 57 *) beat Pakistan 163 for 6 (Hafeez 99 *, Southee 4-21) for nine windows
This game was about two keynote entries. Mohammad Hafeez hit like he was in a dream. It all hit in the middle of his bat, and yet reality rudely broke in when he was off strike, making sure the rest of his teammates were in trouble.
Keeping his head still and scoring 99 (undefeated) runs without a total of 163 was a monumental effort even from a batsman who has been phenomenal in T20 cricket for the last year or so.
The only reason the entries weren’t winning is because Tim Seifert produced an equally compelling masterpiece. He didn’t always worry about timing the ball, but he found a way to always be ahead of the Pakistani bowlers thanks to his ability to move in the fold and access every part of the ground. Their unbeaten 84, to follow a fifty in the first game, is a big reason why New Zealand have won this series 2-0.
The counter attack
Pakistan captain Shadab Khan challenged his best hitters in the draw. “Win the power game.” And they came out with great intention to do just that. Focusing completely on power, they started rocking throughout, which backfired because, well, the ball started rocking too.
Tim Southee collected three wickets on his first spell, including a magnificent outswinger that had Mohammad Rizwan trapped behind, leaving Pakistan at 33-for-3 after six overs. He is now in the top five bowlers in T20I cricket.
The class act
Hafeez is not so reliant on power. He is all the time. And that’s why he was always one step ahead of his teammates.
He realized that the pitch, which in his words offered a fluffy bounce, would not allow for an extravagant hitting game. Not until you get used to it. So he spent the first part of his innings concentrating on using the rhythm of the New Zealand rapids and picking up the singles in the wicket square.
Then, once he was in the area, he deployed all the shots. There was a square at the top in the eighth that should replace the dictionary definition of majestic.
A new provision to seek the limits in the middle of a T20 game, even if it requires hitting overhead, ensured that Hafeez could retain control of a Pakistani inning that was going nowhere. Especially since, while hitting him with a strike rate of 173, only one of the other seven in the top seven scored a run per ball. (This calculation only refers to people who were able to last at least five deliveries)
Devon Conway gave Hafeez a life at 45, who dropped a simple catch on the boundary of the square leg, but earned that slice of luck, finishing 99th off with a six on the last ball of innings. It contributed 60.7% of the total. It was the biggest one-man show in Pakistan’s T20I history.
The trickster
Seifert is beginning to understand his talent. Previously, there were signs that he was simply confused by it. A man with all the takes in the book, and the cunning to invent a few of his own, used to be sucked into his own legend.
Now, however, he has realized that he, too, needs to check a few boxes like any other hitter in the world to be successful. Even in Hamilton, he started to attack the ball hard and as a result he was playing and missing. But then Pakistan fell short on him. That’s his wheelhouse and with a flurry of jerks and cuts he became unstoppable.
Wahab Riaz realized that on his first change. His efforts to bounce Seifert resulted in a six leg over squares. The batter knew the next ball would be full, so he waited with his front leg clear. The ball disappeared over the limit again. Later in the same finale, Seifert judged that the fast under pressure would go back to the tried and tested rear of a long ball in the hallway outside the stump, so he crawled down her crease and practically scooped it up for another six.
While Seifert was predicting what Pakistan was trying to do and eliminating them with ease, Williamson, at the other extreme, had time to settle in his entrances and sailed half a century himself. Hamilton welcomed his captain with shouts and cheers and they went completely insane as he began to play his shots, a top cut of six against Haris Rauf, the best player. His association of 129 was more than enough to kill the game.
Alagappan Muthu is deputy editor of ESPNcricinfo
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