New Zealand vs Pakistan 2020 Series Review.

Both New Zealand and Pakistan had multiple stories in this series—Kane Williamson & Kyle Jamieson’s continued 2020 brilliance, Fawad Alam & Daryl Mitchell’s fairytale hundreds, Azhar Ali’s revival & Shan Masood’s decline.

Here is our review of both the T20I and Test series between New Zealand and the Pakistan—the rising stars, falling gems, broken dreams, and much more!

READ TILL THE END FOR THE WORLD T20I WORLD CUP WATCH!

Also Read: Pakistan vs New Zealand Series Preview, USA Cricket Guide, Umar Gul Retirement Tribute

Results – New Zealand Vs Pakistan 2020

This series mirrored the recently concluded New Zealand Vs West Indies series. In the WI series, the T20I series was dominated by Glenn Phillips. Similarly, this time it was another top order, wicketkeeper-batsman Tim Seifert.

The similarity does not end here. In both these series, Kane Williamson won the Player of the Match award for the first Test match and Kyle Jamieson won that award for the second Test match. While Jamieson received the Player of the Series trophy for the West Indies series, Williamson won the Pakistan series award.

Oh yeah, Williamson scored double centuries in both.

T20I Series: New Zealand Win 2 – 1

* Player of Match

1. NZ won by 5 wickets – Jacob Duffy*
2. NZ won by 9 wickets – Tim Southee*
3. Pakistan won by 4 wickets – Mohammad Rizwan*

Player of Series	New Zealand Tim Seifert 2-50s, 84* best	Pakistan
Most Runs	Tim Seifert – 176 runs	Mohammad Hafeez – 140 runs
Most Wickets	Tim Southee – 6 wickets	Haris Rauf – 5 wickets

Test Series: New Zealand Win 2 – 0

1. NZ won by 101 runs – Kane Williamson*
2. NZ won by an innings and 176 runs – Kyle Jamieson*

Player of Series	New Zealand Kane Williamson 2-100s, 238 best	Pakistan
Most Runs	Kane Williamson – 388 runs (3 innings)	Mohammad Rizwan – 202 runs (4 innings)
Most Wickets	Kyle Jamieson – 16 wickets (4 innings)	Shaheen Shah Afridi – 6 wickets (3 innings)

The Highlights

Pakistan

T20Is

• Mohammad Hafeez keeps improving with age. The 99* in the 2nd T20I was one of the innings of the year albeit in a losing cause.
• In absence of Babar Azam, stand-in captain Shadab Khan showed maturity with his 42 (32) in the first T20I, taking Pakistan to a decent score after being 20/4. Rizwan, similarly, took responsibility in the third match with a match-winning 89 (59). The Babar-Rizwan-Shadab leadership group holds well for the future.
• Abdullah Shafique (2/3 matches), Haider Ali (3/3), and Khushdil Shah (3/3) all had opportunities, but could not capitalize with series totals of 0, 22, and 43 runs respectively. With a struggling top order, maybe some re-shuffling is required. At a T20I strike rate of 145.89, Imad Wasim at #8 was a bit wasted.
• End of Wahab Riaz? 0/64 with economy of 13.24 economy (4.5 overs). I am sure he will fight & comeback as always but time is running out.

Tests

• Fawad Alam, one of the unluckiest player of the last decade, had the last laugh at the end of 2020. 11 years since his last century, Alam scored 102 (296), battling along with Azhar Ali & Rizwan for six and a half hours. Good effort by Pakistan, dragging the game from 0/2 to 271 in 123.3 overs. Almost saved the game if not for Santner’s jumping catch.
• Pakistan scored 239, 271, 297, & 186. Sounds respectable right? Well if the #7 and #8 had not done rearguard efforts thanks to Mohammad Rizwan (71, 60, 61, 10) & Faheem Ashraf (91, 19, 48, 28), Pakistan would have been skittled for not too many. End of the road for Shan Masood and gully-catch-thrower Haris Sohail?
  • Masood + Haris = 8 innings, 38 runs, 200 balls.
  • Afridi + Abbas = 8 innings, 34 runs, 224 balls.
• The bowlers had a horrid test series—usually Pakistan’s strong suit. Although Afridi and Abbas were disciplined, the wicket column was dry. Both Naseem and Yasir Shah were off-color with Yasir’s overseas stats continuing to worsen. Comeback story Zafar Gohar (missed Test debut in 2015 because he overslept) went wicketless.

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New Zealand

T20Is

• Tim Seifert shows his class – 57 (43), 84* (63), 35 (20) at 139.68 strike rate with 7 sixes.
• Jacob Duffy – what a debut! Player of the Match performance with 4/33.
• Devon Conway has solidified his spot for the T20I World Cup with 63 (45) in the last T20I. Looks like Ross Taylor is on the way out in this format….

Tests

• Kane Williamson—should I even write anymore? From the eliminator of the IPL, Williamson’s scores read 50*, 67, 251, 57*, 1, 129, 21, 238 & 1/16. Ends the year as #1 Test batsman.
• Nicholls might have had the rub of the green with Pakistan’s dropped catches, but now has scores of 174 and 157 against West Indies and Pakistan. Not only is he scoring hundreds, he is beginning to score daddy hundreds.
• Kyle Jamieson has taken everybody by surprise. A Test batting average of 56.5, bowling average of 13.27, four 5-wicket hauls and 1 10-wicket haul in his short 6-Test career, he is my ICC Allrounder for the next decade.
• Tim Southee picked up his 300th Test wicket. What a gem this guy has been for New Zealand cricket. What a gem Boult-Southee are. Here are their uncannily similar stats in the past decade (courtesy Twitter).

I heard this from @FPayne100 on the radio – stunning. #NZvPAK #StatChat pic.twitter.com/7kwLNeDiVm

— Michael Wagener (@Mykuhl) December 27, 2020

We like to spice things up with our own awards at the end of the series. Here they are:

New Zealand vs Pakistan 2020	New Zealand	Pakistan
Emerging Player	Jacob Duffy	Faheem Ashraf & Mohammad Rizwan
Surprise Package	Tim Seifert & Daryl Mitchell	Fawad Alam’s 2nd coming
Broken Cricket Dream	Disappointed Fans (Because there weren’t any)	The FIELDING, Wahab Riaz, & Haris Sohail

Who would have been your Emerging Player? Surprise Player? Broken Cricket Dream? Let us know below WITH COMMENTS! Like, share with friends & family, & don’t forget to hit the orange button below!

Where Do They Go From Here?

New Zealand

New Zealand finally achieve the #1 Test rankings, and they are inching ever close to the World Test Championship Final. Will be surprised if they do not make it.

And what do they get for being the #1 Test team? A mere FOUR TESTS in 2021. England get 17*.

• Kane Williamson, Henry Nicholls, Tom Latham, Daryl Mitchell
• Trent Boult, Tim Southee, Kyle Jamieson, Neil Wagner (played with a broken toe – Passion, commitment, but still needs to be careful there)

When Ross Taylor and BJ Watling are your 9th/10th best players in recent times, you know this is a damn good Test team.

Matt Henry had an understated outing, while Adam Milne is playing the Big Bash. Mitchell Santner, Jimmy Neesham, Sodhi, Blundell, Conway, Duffy, Phillips, Jeet Raval, Will Young – New Zealand’s depth in all formats is astounding.

*schedule may be subject to change given current circumstances

Pakistan

I predicted a 2-1 T20I win for Pakistan earlier in the Series Preview, but maybe I was too hopeful there. The T20I series looked close on paper, but New Zealand were, by far, the better side.

On the other hand, the Test result of 2-0, but losses of 101 runs/innings defeat does not reflect the true nature of the series. Pakistan had their moments. New Zealand had their moments. The only difference? New Zealand capitalized. Pakistan dropped. Azhar Ali’s 93 might have saved his career, but Masood & Sohail might be replaced by Babar and Imam (or who knows,…Asad Shafiq, anybody?).

In any case, looking forward, 2021 holds positive news for Pakistan as both South Africa and England are to travel to Pakistan after more than a decade of hiatus for a historic tour. In regards to the World T20I, apart from Babar Azam, Mohammad Hafeez, and Shaheen Shah Afridi, several tweaks need to be made. They are a dangerous side if they can click together.

And finally….Hasan Ali is back.

In Quaid-e-Azam trophy, he was the Player of the Series and Player of the Match in the tied final. 106* (61) with 7 sixes in the final. Class player, had a dip, should make a comeback at the next tour to South Africa.

What a champion @RealHa55an. Electricity is temporary, generator is permanent. Love you mere bhai pic.twitter.com/1ZzfYunSst

— Shadab Khan (@76Shadabkhan) January 5, 2021

World T20 World Cup Watch

We are doing a World T20 Watch from now till the T20I world cup next year. After the end of each T20I series, we look at the current predictions of the WT20 squad as we get closer. Here is our predicted T20 XI line up and 15-man squad as of now based on this series.

Pakistan

1. Babar Azam*, 2. Mohammad Rizwan (WK), 3. Haider Ali, 4. Mohammad Hafeez, 5. Shadab Khan, 6. Imad Wasim, 7. Faheem Ashraf, 8. Hasan Ali, 9. Haris Rauf, 10. Shaheen Shah Afridi, 11. Usman Qadir

Squad: Khusdil Shah/ Hussain Talat, Iftikhar Ahmed/Shoaib Malik, Mohammad Hasnain/Mohammad Musa, Wahab Riaz/ Mohammad Amir comeback?

New Zealand

Since the next WT20 is in India, New Zealand might go with both Santner and Sodhi in the XI.

1. Martin Guptill, 2. Tim Seifert (WK), 3. Kane Williamson*, 4. Glenn Phillips, 5. Devon Conway, 6. Mitchell Santner, 7. James Neesham, 8. Kyle Jamieson, 9. Tim Southee, 10. Trent Boult, 11. Ish Sodhi

Squad: Colin de Grandhomme, Mark Chapman/Ross Taylor, Blair Tickner/Jacob Duffy, Doug Bracewell/Scott Kuggeleijn

*Captain

What did you think about this New Zealand vs Pakistan 2020 Series? What are your World T20 line ups? COMMENT BELOW, and let us know what you think!

Image Courtesy: Kane Williamson – Dave Morton, CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons