Allen breaks New Zealand T20 record to seal series

Beat Pakistan by 43 runs in 3rd match

FE Team | Published: January 17, 2024 21:50:46

WELLINGTON, Jan 17 (Agencies): New Zealand sealed their T20 series against Pakistan with two games to spare Wednesday on the back of a record 137 off 62 balls by opener Finn Allen at University Oval in Dunedin.
The Black Caps, sent in to bat in game three of the five-match series, won by 45 runs after posting a colossal 224 for seven and restricting Pakistan to 179 for seven.
It followed their victories by 46 and 21 runs respectively in the first two matches.
The swashbuckling Allen, following on from his 74 off 41 balls in game two, frequently belted the ball out of the ground as he smashed 16 sixes and five fours in his whirlwind innings.
Allen also equalled the world record for most sixes in a T20I. Hazratullah Zazai had also hit 16 sixes against Ireland at Dehradun in 2018/19. In all Twenty20 cricket, only Chris Gayle (18 and 17) and Punit Bisht (17) have hit more, while Graham Napier and Dasun Shanaka have also hit 16 sixes in an innings.
Allen became the 14th man to score a hundred runs in a T20I solely in boundaries. His 116 boundary runs here are the fifth-most in history, after Zazai's 140 (11 fours, 16 sixes), Aaron Finch's 128 (11 fours, 14 sixes) and 124 (16 fours, 10 sixes), and Zeeshan Kukikhel's 118 (7 fours, 15 sixes).
He said he has been working on trying to spend more time in the middle while still being explosive.
"It's a bit of both, you know, picking my moments when to go and picking bowlers too. For me, playing the ball on its merits and hitting it where it's supposed to go is kind of what I've been trying to do," he said.
Mitch Santner, standing in as New Zealand captain for the injured Kane Williamson, said the innings went as planned.
"The way he constructed his innings, we talked about trying to do it for as long as he can, and he did it for a long time today."
The opener's 137 is the highest score by a New Zealander in a T20 International, surpassing the previous best of 123 set by Brendon McCullum, and it equalled the world record of 16 sixes in an innings held by Afghanistan's Hazratullah Zazai.
He dominated the bowling, taking 27 off one over by Haris Rauf with three sixes, two fours and a single.
Rauf conceded 60 off his four overs while Mohammad Nawaz gave up 44 and Shaheen Afridi 43 on a dismal day with the ball for Pakistan.
After the early dismissal of Devon Conway for seven, Allen and Tim Seifert put on 125 for the second wicket, with Seifert only contributing 31 as he opted for singles to keep the hard-hitting opener on strike.
The umpires had to call for replacement balls three times, after Allen smacked missiles out of the ground.
The opener was eventually undone in the 18th over when he was bowled by an off-cutter from Zaman Khan, who then applauded the New Zealand batsman as he left the field.