Pakistan vs New Zealand, 2nd T20I - Live Cricket Score, Commentary

NZ rattled

Spinners are having a say. They are strangling New Zealand and they are reaping rewards with wickets. De Grandhomme mistimes now against Imad and Malik takes a top catch near the boundary to get rid of him. New Zealand are in trouble.

What a waste!

Munro really got going today so he will be gutted at the mode of this dismissal. Hafeez removes another left-hander. Munro tries to take on Hafeez but gets an inside edge which just trickles towards Sarfaraz who immediately stumps the batsman out. New Zealand lose both openers and it is Colin de Grandhomme who comes in ahead of Taylor.

Success for Shaheen

New Zealand have made 50 in the powerplay. But Phillips never got going tonight. He made just 5 off 11 before getting a thin inside edge that was pouched by Sarfraz. Pakistan needed this to break the momentum.

Dropped

What a miss! Munro has clearly teed off here dealing in boundaries and he has mistimed one which has been dropped. Hafeez got to it, grabbed it but the ball came out. Will Pakistan suffer for this dropped catch?

What a start!

Munro goes after Imam first ball of the match. He strikes it clean for a six. New Zealand openers showed intent last time so expect them to do the same again now. It will be an interesting battle.

Toss- New Zealand opt to bat

Pakistan have brought back Fakhar Zaman. It will be interesting to see how he fares tonight. New Zealand will be looking to post a fighting total and see if they can put pressure on Pakistan.

Teams:

Pakistan (Playing XI): Babar Azam, Fakhar Zaman, Mohammad Hafeez, Asif Ali, Shoaib Malik, Sarfraz Ahmed(w/c), Faheem Ashraf, Imad Wasim, Shadab Khan, Hasan Ali, Shaheen Afridi

New Zealand (Playing XI): Colin Munro, Glenn Phillips, Kane Williamson(c), Colin de Grandhomme, Ross Taylor, Corey Anderson, Tim Seifert(w), Tim Southee, Adam Milne, Ish Sodhi, Ajaz Patel

Build up

Winning has certainly become a habit for this Pakistan team in the shortest format of the game. They have been too efficient and no wonder they are on top of the rankings. Ten successive series wins is a phenomenal achievement. If they win tonight, it's going to become 11. They have also won seven successive games now and for New Zealand to stop it, they need to be slightly better than what they were in the first game.

New Zealand are returning to international cricket after seven months so they were expected to be rusty. Yet, they came so close towards the end and lost by just two runs as Pakistan's bowling attack kept things tight. What will the visitors come up with tonight to counter the bowling threat? Will Pakistan make any changes? We will find out shortly. Welcome to the live blog for this second T20I.