Otago bowler Jacob Duffy has produced a memorable Blackcaps debut to help guide them to victory over Pakistan in their T20 series opener at Auckland's Eden Park.
Handed the new ball for the second over of the match, Duffy wasted no time removing opener Abdullah Shafique with his fourth ball, and then captured Mohammad Rizwan and Mohammad Hafeez with consecutive balls in his next over.
Opening his third over on a possible hat-trick, he was denied by Khushdil Shah, but added the crucial scalp of captain Shadab Khan before the end of his spell.
Besides his heroics with the ball, Duffy proved himself capable in the outfield, miraculously catching Shadab, off the bowling of Blair Tickner, but barely clipped the boundary rope in the process to nullify the effort.
New Zealand began the encounter strongly, reducing their opponents to 39/5 in the ninth over.
After their struggles with COVID-19 isolation and losing captain Babar Azam for the white-ball series, the tourists won the toss and chose to bat, but looked short of a gallop against an understrength NZ line-up.
The home side chose to rest skipper Kane Williamson, and frontline bowlers Trent Boult, Tim Southee and Kyle Jamieson, but found able replacements to fill the vacancies.
Scott Kuggeleijn took three wickets, with Tickner and Ish Sodhi snaffling one each, but Shadab was able to rally his side to a competitive 153 total, scoring 42 runs off 32 balls, while Faheem Ashraf contributed 31 off 18, including three sixes.
The Blackcaps began their chase unconvincingly, with Martin Guptill exiting in the third over and Devon Conway eight balls later.
Wicketkeeper Tim Seifert and Glen Phillips steadied the chase, with the former eventually top-scoring with 57 off 43 balls - his fourth international fifty.
Seifert and Mark Chapman (34 off 20) compiled 45 runs to put New Zealand in the driver's seat, but when both departed, Jimmy Neesham and Santner united to see them home with seven balls remaining.
Santner hit a six over his right shoulder to end the contest - his second in charge, after his first against West Indies was rained out.
Both teams head to Hamilton for the second match of the series on Sunday, with the Blackcaps welcoming their test stars back to the fold.
Duffy, Chapman, Tickner and Doug Bracewell are all due to drop out of the squad.
Join us at 7pm Sunday for live updates of the second Blackcaps v Pakistan T20 match
