Courtesy: X
Haris Rauf, the Pakistan fast bowler, took a spectacular one-handed catch flying to his right side during the third T20I of the five-match series against New Zealand at the Eden Park in Auckland. The fielding exploits of the 31-year-old allowed Shaheen Afridi to take yet another wicket in the first over of a T20I, getting rid of right-handed batter Finn Allen, who didn’t trouble the scorers in front of his home fans.
It was the fifth delivery of the first over from left-arm fast bowler Shaheen Afridi, bowled at the pads, which was flicked away towards the fine leg region by Finn Allen. The shot seemed to be heading towards the boundary for four runs until Haris Rauf, who was stationed at short fine leg region, flew in the air to grab hold of the ball with his right hand while being perpendicular to the ground, stunning everyone in the process.
Watch the video here:
After that, it was the Mark Chapman show with the bat for New Zealand as he scored 94 runs in 44 balls with 11 fours and four maximums, which played a key role in helping the hosts get their score around 200 runs. Pakistan need to win the third T20I, to keep the five-match series alive after losing the first two matches in a one-sided manner.
Below are the playing XIs of New Zealand and Pakistan for the third T20I:
New Zealand: Tim Seifert, Finn Allen, Mark Chapman, Daryl Mitchell, Jimmy Neesham, Mitch Hay (wk), Michael Bracewell (c), Ish Sodhi, Kyle Jamieson, Jacob Duffy, Ben Sears
Pakistan: Mohammad Haris (wk), Hasan Nawaz, Salman Ali Agha (c), Muhammad Irfan Khan, Shadab Khan, Abdul Samad, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Abbas Afridi, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Abrar Ahmed, Haris Rauf
