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New Zealand vs Pakistan, 1st Semi-Final at Sydney | Full Highlights ICC T20 World Cup 2022.

Shaheen Shah Afridi bowls to Finn Allen. The rust looks to have long left Afridi, even if it was painfully evident against India and through much of the first half of Pakistan's World Cup campaign. This, really, is the game right here, and Shaheen is sharp enough to understand it. Allen is the most explosive T20I opener in the world; among those who've batted at least 20 times since his debut, no one has a better strike rate than his 165.68 before this game. New Zealand have never lost a match where he has scored 30. He knocked Australia out of their home World Cup in effectively the first ten overs of their campaign.

It's a glorious day in Sydney, a light breeze stirring the surface of the Parramatta River, which shimmers and glistens in the warm spring sunshine. It's a great day for a languid evening walk around the city - perhaps along the Harbour Bridge, or one of the many parks dotted about Australia's largest city. But most of the people out on foot have a much more purposeful gait, and they aren't tourists taking in the views over the bridge. They're wearing the resplendent green of Pakistan, and all roads, walking paths and light rails seem to lead to the SCG. Sure, there are a few fans in New Zealand shirts, too, but in truth, it'd be easier to find Waldo.

A direct hit from Shadab Khan caught Devon Conway short, New Zealand vs Pakistan, T20 World Cup, 1st semi-final, Sydney, November 9, 2022
Pakistan were tight with the ball and electric in the field•ICC via Getty
New Zealand choose to bat first, an arrangement that has resulted in a win in five of the six previous games at the SCG. But the last person to arrive in a room often ends up taking charge, and Pakistan, at a World Cup party they should by all logic have departed by now, suddenly find themselves in control. Egged on by the parallels of 1992 that catalyse any Pakistan World Cup campaign, the belief that it is destined to happen allows a strange calm to come over this perpetually restless side.

Pakistan stroll about the SCG with an entitlement that belies the fortuitous path they took here. Haris Rauf runs in for two Powerplay overs, and when someone regularly breaches 150kph, batters will find it tricky, used pitch or not. Shadab Khan inflicts a run-out with a brilliant pick-up and throw. Mohammad Nawaz is turned to against Glenn Phillips, who finds slow left-arm bowling his (relative) Achilles heel. He lasts two balls against it. There's even a swagger to the way Shaheen is bowled out by the 17th over, Babar trusting Naseem Shah to finish off the job at the death. With the ball reversing, New Zealand manage all of one single, two doubles, two byes and one leg-bye. There are no wides and no no-balls all innings. Scraps, indeed.

Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan notched up their third T20 World Cup century stand, New Zealand vs Pakistan, T20 World Cup 2022, 1st Semi-Final Sydney, Novembe

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