Babar Azam: I think we were 10-15 runs short after Rizwan revived the innings for us through the middle phases. The way Iftikhar performed in the batting department has been a major boost for us. The same goes for Imad how who carried his form from the PSL and chipped in with both bat and ball, it’s been really helpful. We have a lot of positives from the series, especially how the young guns have come out and expressed. We have also understood the areas where we are lacking and we will try to improve. Special knock this from Chapman, congratulations to him. We will look to switch on for the ODIs and give our best there.
Tom Latham: One of the best innings a lot of us have ever seen, hats off to Chapman. They [Neesham and Chapman] just worked out their partnership really well and kept piling the pressure back on the opponents. We spoke about how we want to improve from game to game. The prep for us wasn’t ideal coming in but it’s mightily satisfying that we ended with a series draw after being two-nil down. Unfortunately, Chapman is heading home [on being asked if Chapman is staying for the ODIs]. It’s going to be a challenging ODI series and we are looking forward to the new challenge.
Mark Chapman: We are very happy with how we leveled the series tonight and finished the job. It took a bit of adjusting in the first two games and it’s great to see that it worked out well. I was pretty thankful that Jimmy Neesham came out all-guns-blazing and took some pressure off me as well.
Pakistan vs New Zealand Highlights today. 5th T20I (N), Monday 24-4-2023, New Zealand tour of Pakistan 2023, Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium.
Toss: New Zealand chose to field.
Pakistan team: Babar Azam (c), Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Mohammad Haris, Saim Ayub, Shadab Khan, Iftikhar Ahmed, Imad Wasim, Faheem Ashraf, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Haris Rauf, Ihsanullah
New Zealand team: Tom Latham (c & wk), Chad Bowes, Will Young, Daryl Mitchell, Mark Chapman, James Neesham, Rachin Ravindra, Adam Milne, Blair Tickner, Ish Sodhi, Henry Shipley
Head to Head In T20I’s: 33
Pakistan Won: 20
New Zealand Won: 12
Pakistan T20I Rankings: 3rd
New Zealand T20I Rankings: 5th
Form guide
(Last five matches, most recent first)
Pakistan NR-LWWW
New Zealand NRWLLW
Match Timings: 4:00 PM GMT | 9:00 PM Local
Umpires – Aleem Dar, Asif Yaqoob
TV Umpire – Rashid Riaz
Match Referee – Ali Naqvi
Reserve Umpire – Faisal Afridi
Match number – T20I no. 2049
