Cricket: Subpar Black Caps no match for impressive Pakistan

Babar Azam guided Pakistan to a comfortable victory over the Black Caps. Photo / photosport.nz

The summer of cricket began with blankets and a bleak defeat the Black Caps will want to quickly forget.

Pakistan were supreme in all facets tonight as New Zealand kicked off their Twenty20 World Cup preparations with a performance that hardly augured well for their chances.

Fortunately, their opening match of the tri-series on a chilly night at Hagley Oval will be a distant memory by the time they start their campaign against the hosts in Sydney in a fortnight.

The Black Caps were shut down by tight Pakistani bowling as they stuttered to 147-8. And that was never going to be enough runs with Babar Azam (79 off 53) in the middle, where poor fielding allowed him to remain as the tourists eased home with six wickets and 10 balls to spare.

New Zealand were missing as many as four of their first-choice XI, so will hardly be panicking. But they will need to make vast improvements if they wish to go one better at the World Cup after losing last year's final to Australia.

Those improvements, the Black Caps hope, should come with the cavalry. Neither Lockie Ferguson nor Adam Milne were deemed fit enough to start; Mitchell Santner was on parental leave; Martin Guptill was left out for Finn Allen; and Daryl Mitchell was absent after fracturing his hand in the nets.

On the last, there was some good news, with Mitchell revealing the early prognosis to be promising, leaving him hopeful of being fit for the start of this month's showpiece.

And the Black Caps would have also been buoyed by the innings of one of the contenders to replace Mitchell, if he were ruled out.

Mark Chapman's 16-ball knock of 32 was one of the few times a batsman in black appeared comfortable after Kane Williamson won the toss and padded up as the thermometer showed 12 degrees.

The captain came to the crease after Allen - clearly under instruction - blasted three fours in an eight-ball spell that was quickly undone by the pace of Mohammad Wasim.

Williamson could have been run out twice during a patchy innings indicative of his recent struggles in the middle, battling for timing while scoring only one boundary to complement seven dot balls.

He and Devon Conway at least established a base for the big hitters to come, reaching 70-1 at the halfway mark, but were too easily tied down and at one stage went 23 balls without a boundary.

Needing to launch, Conway (36 off 35) attempted as much in the 11th over but holed out to midwicket, before Williamson (31 off 30) was deceived by a bit of turn from Mohammad Nawaz.

That brought in Chapman who from his fifth delivery launched the shot of the match, a prodigious 97-metre drive over deep midwicket that sparked a 22-run over.

But he was the only middle-order batsman to meet the challenge as clever death bowling - particularly from Haris Rauf (3-28) - saw the home side lose 5-14 and fall well short of a par score.

Pakistan rarely missed their length while conceding no extras from wides or no balls, putting the onus on New Zealand to do likewise. But after Trent Boult began with a maiden, little else went right.

Tim Southee did trap Mohammad Rizwan - the world's top-ranked batsman - in front for four, but that merely set the stage for the world No 3 to take charge.

Glenn Phillips could have denied Babar the spotlight but shelled a simple chance from Southee's bowling when the Pakistan captain was on 27, further worsening his bowlers' mood by then costing a boundary off Ish Sodhi.

But Pakistan were always in control of their chase, backing up their comfortable opening win over Bangladesh and leaving the Black Caps with a couple of weeks to warm up.