Finntastic.<\/p>\n
Black Caps opener Finn Allen thumped 137 from 62 balls to help the home side post a formidable total of 224 for seven against Pakistan this afternoon.<\/p>\n
The Universal Oval’s dimensions proved little hurdle for the opener. He flayed a T20 international record equalling 16 sixes.<\/p>\n
Read that again. Sixteen sixes.<\/p>\n
And some of them were in the air for an awful long time.<\/p>\n
And some of them disappeared out of the ground.<\/p>\n
The spare box of balls was called on regularly.<\/p>\n
New Zealand Cricket ought to invoice him.<\/p>\n
Tim Seifert played a nice cameo of 31. He fed the strike to Allen and combined in a partnership of 125 for the second wicket.<\/p>\n
Allen got a standing ovation when he finally dragged a delivery on and was dismissed.<\/p>\n
His total of 137 is the highest for New Zealand, eclipsing the 123 Brendon McCullum whacked against Bangladesh in 2012.<\/p>\n
He certainly treated the sell-out crowd to a wonderful display of power hitting.<\/p>\n
New Zealand’s total was the highest T20 innings at the venue, so Pakistan will need to break the record to keep the five-game series alive. They trail 2-0.<\/p>\n
The Black Caps are undefeated at the University Oval across all three formats.<\/p>\n
The game is sold out. Capacity is 4000.<\/p>\n
New Zealand XI: Finn Allen, Devon Conway, Tim Seifert (wk), Daryl Mitchell, Glenn Phillips, Mark Chapman, Mitchell Santner (c), Matthew Henry, Ish Sodhi, Tim Southee, Lockie Ferguson.<\/p>\n
Pakistan XI: Mohammad Rizwan (vc), Saim Ayub, Babar Azam, Fakhar Zaman, Iftikhar Ahmed, Azam Khan (wk), Mohammad Nawaz, Shaheen Afridi (c), Mohammad Wasim Jnr, Haris Rauf, Zaman Khan.<\/p>\n