In Friday’s fourth Twenty20 international encounter between New Zealand and Pakistan in Christchurch, New Zealand won the toss and chose to bowl first.
Sahibzada Farhan took Azam Khan’s place in the starting lineup for the fourth game, marking the only alteration made by Shaheen Shah Afridi, the captain of the Green Shirts.
Nevertheless, Devon Conway, who started the game, was declared out of bounds due to a positive COVID-19 test, dealing a blow to New Zealand. Conway will be being watched before Sunday’s championship game. Conway had been placed under observation at the team’s hotel in Christchurch.
Chad Bowes, a batter with the Canterbury Kings, will be added to the team to relieve Conway. In addition to Andre Adams, the bowling coach, testing positive for COVID-19, Mitch Santner, the team’s spinner and usual captain Kane Williamson’s injured replacement, missed the first game of the series for the same reason.
Finn Allen scored the most runs by a New Zealand batsman in a Twenty20 international (T20I) with 137 off 62 balls in the third inning, helping his side win 45 runs on Wednesday in Dunedin.
In preparation for the forthcoming T20 World Cup in June, this is Pakistan’s maiden series as captain of the Twenty20 team under Shaheen Shah Afridi. On Sunday, the series’ final game is set to take place in Christchurch.
Squads:
Pakistan: Muhammad Nawaz, Shaheen Afridi ©, Mohammad Wasim, Haris Rauf, Zaman Khan, Fakhar Zaman, Sahibzada Farhan, Iftikhar Ahmed, and Muhammad Rizwan (wk).
The following players are from New Zealand: Adam Milne, Matthew Henry, Tim Southee, Lockie Ferguson, Glenn Philipps, Mark Chapman, Will Young, Daryl Mitchell, and Tim Seifert (wk).
