New Zealand cricket team’s blistering form in the T20 international series against Pakistan was reinforced in the spectacular third match, where a dominant win by 45 runs gave the Black Caps an unassailable lead in the five-match encounter. The limelight was stolen by the swashbuckling opener Finn Allen, whose awe-inspiring innings of 137 runs from just 62 balls etched his name in the annals of cricket history. The young starlet’s knock, punctuated by five boundaries and a staggering 16 sixes – the most in a T20I for New Zealand – saw him leapfrog past the former Kiwi skipper Brendon McCullum’s previous highest score in the format.
In what turned out to be a challenging day for the Pakistani bowlers, every attempt to stem the flow of runs was thwarted by a relentless Kiwi batting assault, particularly by Allen. The visitors’ Haris Rauf endured a torrid outing, surrendering 60 runs over his four overs, with Allen targeting him for an astonishing six sixes from the 14 deliveries he faced from the pacer. Allen’s heroics placed him in an elite club, making him just the third batsman in T20I cricket to hit as many sixes off a single bowler in a match – a record he now shares with India’s Yuvraj Singh and Australia’s Josh Inglis.
It was in the inaugural 2007 T20 World Cup when Yuvraj Singh mesmerized the cricketing world by smashing six consecutive maximums off England’s Stuart Broad. More recently, Josh Inglis achieved the same feat last year, imposing his will upon India’s leg-spinner Ravi Bishnoi. Now, Finn Allen’s royal striking propels him into the company of these remarkable hitting performances, showcasing the evolution of the T20 game and the fearless approach of its newest stars.
As the match progressed and records tumbled, Allen’s name was etched next to another significant landmark when he matched the tally for the most sixes in a T20I innings, a testament to his powerful and precise hitting. Furthermore, his monumental innings ranks as the fifth-highest individual score in T20 international cricket. En route to this century, Allen also achieved a personal milestone by surmounting 1000 runs in T20Is. His journey to the four-figure mark was completed in a mere 611 balls, a feat surpassed in quickness only by India’s Suryakumar Yadav and Australia’s Glenn Maxwell, renowned for their own explosive batsmanship.
Allen’s sublime machine-gun batting added luster to the New Zealand team’s already sparkling series performance, elevating the squad’s prowess in the short format, and igniting excitement amongst fans for the remaining games. While the series win is already in the bag, the hunger for individual and team excellence is palpable as the Black Caps continue to ramp up their T20 game.
To add a bit of context to the scale of the team’s victory and Allen’s individual achievement, other notable performances of the match and series are worth recalling. Pakistan’s captain Babar Azam had managed to level with India’s Virat Kohli’s world record in T20Is earlier in the series with another half-century. Similarly, India’s Shivam Dube had ascended dramatically in the ICC T20 rankings, crossing teammates Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill. Looming in the backdrop of these stellar performances, Australia’s quartet managed a unique world record against the West Indies.
As the series against Pakistan unfolds, with the Black Caps leading 3-0, the world awaits the potential further feats of brilliance that can emerge from this highly anticipated T20 face-off. Finn Allen, with his transcendent innings, has fired a salvo that advocates his burgeoning status and a warning to bowlers all around the world – when on song, his is a name that promises fireworks, and a spectacle unmatched.
