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| 'Lost the won match': New Zealand defeated Pakistan by six wickets in the last match, T20 series level. |
"The weakest Kiwi team without nine superstar players cannot win a home series against them."
This comment by a social media user named Dr. Ahmed Musa on the performance in the recent T20 series against New Zealand probably speaks for all Pakistani cricket fans.
One of the reasons for this disappointment was perhaps the fact that in the final and decisive match of the series, the Pakistan team, despite being in a strong position, suffered an inexplicable defeat due to only one name: Mark Chapman.
We have to start with the first over of New Zealand's innings to know how much of an impact series top scorer Mark Chapman had on this match.
After Pakistan scored 193 runs, when the New Zealand team came to bat in pursuit of the target, Shaheen Shah Afridi once again showed his magic in the very first over.
On the very first ball, Tom Latham caught Shadab Khan off the ball of Shaheen Shah, after which Will Young also returned to Poland with only four runs on the fifth ball of the same over.
In the fourth over, Chad Bowes was dismissed for 19. New Zealand's total score was 26 and their top three batsmen were out.
On this occasion, Mark Chapman came to the crease and did not score a single run in the first six balls. Thus, at the end of the fifth over, New Zealand's score was 27, which could only reach 33 at the end of the power play.
New Zealand needed around 12 runs per over when Shadab Khan came in to bowl. Mark Champion made his intentions clear with a six off Shadab's first ball and a four off the second ball, but when Imad Wasim ended his under-the-radar spell in the 10th over with the wicket of Daryl Mitchell, New Zealand had just 10 overs left. 121 runs were required.
Now the match was in the hands of Pakistan.
Imad Wasim took two wickets for just 21 runs in his four overs. But after that none of Pakistan's bowling line could follow in their footsteps and the dice of the match surprisingly turned in such a way that the whole team including Babar Azam was left watching.
In the 11th over, Mark Chapman hit Faheem with three fours, and in the 12th over, Shadab hit two fours and a six to complete his half-century in 30 balls.
But it was actually the 13th over of the match in which it was felt that the night belonged to Mark Chapman.
It was Harris Roof's over in which Mark Chapman hit two sixes and forced Babar Azam to expect Shaheen Shah Afridi to once again show his magic.
Looking for a wicket, Babar Azam held the ball to Shaheen and he fulfilled the captain's hope, but on the fifth ball of the 14th over, Shadab dropped the catch of Mark Chapman.
The next over was from Ehsanullah, in which Mark Champion's partner Jimmy Neesham hit a four and a six, and New Zealand now needed 44 runs from 30 balls.
Mark Chapman and Jimmy Neesham had scored 77 runs off 30 balls and now the dice of the match had turned.
After that, New Zealand never looked back. Shadab's googly didn't work, neither did Ehsanullah's yorker, Harris's pace came, nor Shaheen's magic.
In Shaheen's last and 18th over of the innings, first Mark Chapman hit three fours and completed his century on the last ball, now only 12 runs were left in 12 balls which were completed very easily.
Mark Chapman and Jimmy Neesham reached the target on the second ball of the 20th over in a partnership of 121 runs.
Mark Chapman scored a total of 290 runs in the series, including a century and two half-centuries, and was the top scorer. No one deserved the Player of the Series award better than him.
Had Shadab taken that catch, the outcome of the match and the series might have been different and the night would have gone to Muhammad Rizwan instead of Mark Chapman.
Because Muhammad Rizwan played an unbeaten inning of 98 runs during Pakistan's batting.
When Pakistan started batting, Muhammad Rizwan started the game at a brisk pace by hitting two sixes in the second over.
But in the sixth over, Babar Azam and Mohammad Haris got out one after the other, then in the next over, Saeem Ayub also scored no runs and the Poles returned.
On this occasion, Iftikhar Ahmed joined Mohammad Rizwan and the two shared a 71-run partnership to take Pakistan to 123 when Iftikhar was dismissed for 36 off 22 balls.
After him, Imad Wasim supported Mohammad Rizwan and played a brilliant inning of 31 runs off 14 balls.
When the last over of the match started, Rizwan was on 97 runs but he took a single on the very first ball after which he only got to play the last ball on which he could not score a run.
The total score of 195 runs was defensible, but looking at Pakistan's innings, only 16 runs were scored in the 18th and 19th overs.
Perhaps that is why Babar Azam said at the end of the match that 10-15 runs should be less.