Christchurch, New Zealand: Pakistan slumped to a nine-wicket loss in the first Twenty20 against New Zealand in Christchurch on Sunday after failing to defend a meagre score of 91.
The tourists began the five-match series in disastrous fashion, reduced to 11-4 at the end of the fifth over after towering paceman Kyle Jamieson ran amok with the new ball.
They were eventually dismissed for their lowest score in a T20 on New Zealand soil and the home side had few problems in responding with 92-1 off just 10.1 overs.
Jamieson claimed three of the first four wickets to finish with 3-8 off four overs.
New ball partner Jacob Duffy returned later in the innings to sweep up the tail and, like Jamieson, claimed career-best T20 figures of 4-14 off 3.4 overs.
Pakistan never recovered from their top-order collapse after being sent in on a Hagley Oval pitch offering early life, with only three players reaching double figures.
Newly-installed captain Salman Agha scored 18 and put on 46 for the fifth wicket with top-scorer Khushdil Shah, who struck three sixes in his 32 off 30 balls.
Jahandad Khan scored 17 at a run-a-ball before the innings ended with eight balls still to be bowled.
Pakistan’s previous lowest T20 score in New Zealand was 101 all out in a 95-run loss in Wellington in 2016.
Opener Tim Seifert got New Zealand off to a flying start, with 44 off 29 balls, striking seven fours and one six.
Finn Allen on 29 and Tim Robinson on 18 completed the chase off the first ball of the 11th over.
The second match is in Dunedin on Tuesday.
 

INDIAN WELLS: Aryna Sabalenka avenged her Australian Open loss to Madison Keys, thrashing the American 6-0, 6-1 to book an Indian Wells title showdown with teen sensation Mirra Andreeva.

Red-hot Russian 17-year-old Andreeva showed plenty of poise in a 7-6 (7/1), 1-6, 6-3 victory over defending champion Iga Swiatek, ending the second-ranked Pole’s bid to become the first woman to win three titles in the California desert.

“I was hungry,” said Sabalenka, who had made no bones about wanting revenge after Keys denied her bid for a third straight Australian Open title in January.

“That Australian Open match was really heartbroken for me, and I really needed some time to recover after that.

“And if I would lose today again, it would get in my head and I didn’t want that to happen. I was really focused — I was just really hungry to get this win against Madison.”

Keys, who was riding a 16-match winning streak, couldn’t get a foot in the door.

Sabalenka was untroubled by the cold, swirling wind on Stadium Court as she won the first 11 games.

“I think tactically I played really great tennis,” said Sabalenka, adding her strategy was to “just keep her out of the rhythm.”

The misfiring Keys finally held serve for 5-1 in the second, but minutes later Sabalenka sealed the win and lined up a shot at the WTA tour’s newest sensation Andreeva in what 26-year-old Sabalenka quipped would be “kind of like an old mama playing against a kid.”

Andreeva beat Swiatek for the second time in as many tournaments, having stunned the Polish star in the quarter-finals at Dubai last month on the way to becoming the youngest ever WTA 1000 champion.

Swiatek, who hadn’t dropped a set in winning 10 straight Indian Wells matches, looked supremely confident as she dropped just one point in her first three service games.

But it was Andreeva who claimed the first break of the tense first set for a 5-4 lead.

After Swiatek broke back and they reached the tiebreaker, Andreeva seized control, opening with a blistering backhand winner and pocketing the set on her first opportunity as Swiatek sent a backhand wide.

“I felt like I’m gonna go and play the tiebreak like it’s the last tiebreak of my life,” she said. “So I just went for all my shots. My serve was great. I just felt super comfortable and confident,” she said.

Swiatek put her frustrations aside and broke Andreeva to open the second set, breaking her twice more as the Russian’s errors multiplied under pressure from her opponent.

“The second set, it was a bit weird,” Andreeva said. “I just felt like she literally overplayed me, because she was playing pretty deep with good height over the net. It was really hard to do something with these shots.”

The roles reversed again, however, when Andreeva stepped up her attack and broke Swiatek to open the third, and she sealed the win with her third break of the set.

“I just decided to kind of still play the same but maybe go for my shots more, trying to play a little bit more aggressive,” she said.

“I feel also that I was dealing with the nerves and the pressure pretty good, so I just feel proud of myself.”