Nuggety wicketkeeper Tim Seifert has steered the Blackcaps to a T20 series victory over Pakistan with a comprehensive win in their second encounter at Hamilton's Seddon Park.
Chasing a target of 164, Seifert and Martin Guptill had New Zealand off to a fast start, and after the latter departed in the fourth over, his opening partner continued to punish the tourists for his second consecutive half-century and his fifth international T20 fifty, equalling his career highest score of 84 runs off 63 balls.
Pakistan managed to prolong the pursuit into the final over, as Seifert and skipper Kane Williamson nudged for singles, rather than applying the killer blow. Ultimately, Williamson put them out of their misery, swatting a boundary with four balls remaining and nine wickets in hand.
After makeshift line-up came up trumps in Auckland on Friday, the Blackcaps welcomed test stars Williamson, Tim Southee, Trent Boult and Kyle Jamieson back to their squad, with Southee landing the early punches, after Pakistan chose to bat first.
He had the scalps of opener Haider Ali and Abdullah Shafique in their second over, then removed Mohammad Rizwan and Faheem Ashraf to finish with 4/21 off his four overs.
The tourists were teetering at 56/4, until Mohammad Hafeez unleashed on the Kiwis bowling, falling agonisingly short of a maiden T20 international century, with 99 off 57 balls. He clobbered 16 runs off the last three balls of Jamieson's final over to make the Blackcaps chase just a little tougher.
Guptill created the early momentum, with two sixes and a four among his 21 runs off 11 balls, but was caught swinging for the fence again.
Seifert took up the baton, while Williamson took a few balls to switch from test to limted-overs mode, before compiling a 12th career fifty. The pair also set a New Zealand second-wicket record, previously held by Brendon McCullum and Hamish Rutherford.
Both teams now travel to Napier for the third match of the series at McLean Park on Tuesday.
Pakistan 163/6 - Hafeez 99no (57 balls), Rizwan 22 (20), Southee 4/21, Neesham 1/10
Blackcaps 164/1 - Seifert 84no (63), Williamson 57no (42), Guptil 21 (11), Faheem 1/19
New Zealand win by nine wickets
Join us at 7pm Tuesday for live updates of the third Blackcaps v Pakistan T20 international
