THE 181-run challenge thrown by the New Zealanders in a must-win game proved insurmountable for Pakistan, who ended their run chase with just 158 on the board for the loss of five wickets.

The win took the brilliant Black Caps to the semi-finals of the World T20, making them the first team to qualify.

Pakistan opener Sharjeel Khan hacked away at the bowling with a fury that raised hopes of an upset, but losing regular wickets at critical moments just did not allow Shahid Afridi’s boys to sink their teeth into the game and force the Blacks Caps to tap out.

When Sharjeel fell (47 from 25 balls) with the score at 65 in the last over of the power play with the run rate more than 12 an over, it seemed a win was par for course. Khalid Latif departed after three runs, but Ahmed Sehzad looked to carry on from where Sharjeel left off. However, his departure and that of Afridi in the 15th over left them to score 57 in 5 overs.

With Umar Akmal, Sarfraz Nawaz and Shaoib Malik’s wickets still intact, and at a little over 10 runs an over, it could still be done theoretically.

But they fell well short, failing to score a boundary in the last 31 balls which was clearly poor cricket by all counts.

Earlier, Martin Guptill and Kane Williamson turned on the heat for the Pakistanis on a cool breezy evening to tot up a quick-fire 55 at the end of the powerplay.

That set the tone for New Zealand’s batting at Mohali on Tuesday evening. When they closed their innings, they had set a tough target of 181 for the Pakistanis.

Opting to bat on a pitch that looked firm after winning toss third time in a row, the opening duo of Guptill-Williamson had shared an opening stand of 62, Guptill contributing 38 with four 4s and three 6s.

There was another 50-run partnership — between Guptill and Corey Anderson, who had scored 17 till then.

After the Eden Gardens, it was the turn of PCA Stadium at Mohali to root for Shahid Afridi’s team. And though the cheering was not as loud as it was when they were playing Bangladesh in Kolkata, it was enough to show which way the sentiments lay.

The all-too familiar cry of Pakistan jeetega often rent the night sky, and the first delivery of the game, an inswinger from Mohammed Amir, sent the excitement soaring.

The five dots in that first over held much promise on a slightly green top. As it turned out, any hopes the over may have raised for the pacers petered off soon with Amir and Mohammad Irfan giving away 26 runs in the next two overs.

Afridi was again expensive, giving away 40 runs from his allotted four overs though he had to his credit the wickets of Williamson and Anderson.

Mohammed Sami returned the best figures of 2 for 23, including prized scalp of Martin Guptill (80 off 48 balls).

New Zealand again sat out Trent Boult and Tim Southee sit out despite the fair bit of green on the pitch, they haven’t played a single game yet.

For the Pakistanis, Hafeez sat out following a bone contusion in his femur, while fast bowler Wahab Riaz was down with neck injury at practice.

Scoreboard

NEW ZEALAND:

Martin Guptill b Sami 80Kane Williamson c Afridi b Irfan 17Colin Munro c Khan b Afridi 7Corey Anderson c Malik b Afridi 21Ross Taylor not out 36Luke Ronchi c Malik b Sami 11Grant Elliott not out 1

EXTRAS: (LB-4, W-3) 7

TOTAL: (for 5 wickets, 20 overs) 180

FALL OF WICKETS: 1-62, 2-75, 3-127, 4-132, 5-164

DID NOT BAT: Mitchell Santner, Adam Milne, Mitchell McClenaghan, Ish Sodhi.

BOWLING: Mohammad Amir 4-0-41-0 (1w), Mohammad Irfan 4-0-46-1, Mohammad Sami 4-0-23-2 (w), Imad Wasim 4-0-26-0, Shahid Afridi 4-0-40-2

PAKISTAN:

Sharjeel Khan c Guptill b Milne 47Ahmed Shahzad c Guptill b Santner 30Khalid Latif c Elliott b Santner 3Umar Akmal c Guptill b Milne 24Shahid Afridi c Anderson b Sodhi 19Shoaib Malik not out 15Sarfraz Ahmed not out 11

EXTRAS: (LB-5, W-4) 9

TOTAL: (for 5 wickets, 20 overs) 158

FALL OF WICKETS: 1-65, 2-79, 3-96, 4-123, 5-140

DID NOT BAT: Mohammad Sami, Imad Wasim, Mohammad Amir, Mohammad Irfan.

BOWLING: Mitchell Santner 4-0-29-2 (3w), Corey Anderson 2-0-14-0 (1w), Adam Milne 4-0-26-2, Mitchell McClenaghan 4-0-43-0, Grant Elliott 2-0-16-0, Ish Sodhi 4-0-25-1

TOSS: New Zealand

UMPIRES: Richard Illingworth and Nigel Llong (both England)

TV UMPIRE: Kumar Dharmasena (Sri Lanka)

MATCH REFEREE: Ranjan Madugalle (Sri Lanka)

Points table

P   W   T   L   NR  NRR Pts 

Group 1

West Indies 2 2 0 0 0 +0.893 4

South Africa 2 1 0 1 0 +0.816 2

Sri Lanka 2 1 0 1 0 -0.171 2

England 2 1 0 1 0 -0.408 2

Afghanistan 2 0 0 2 0 -1.248 0

Group 2

New Zealand 3 3 0 0 0 +1.283 6

Pakistan 3 1 0 2 0 +0.254 2

Australia 2 1 0 1 0 +0.108 2

India 2 1 0 1 0 -0.895 2

Bangladesh 2 0 0 2 0 -1.749 0

Published in Dawn, March 23rd, 2016