Say what you want about the UAE, but the world record partnership between Black Caps openers Finn Allen and Tim Seifert showed New Zealand exactly what cricket’s future will look like.
As New Zealand took the field in Chennai for their second match of this year’s T20 World Cup, a target of 174 was ruthlessly swept aside by the pair, against a UAE outfit that have proven they can trouble some of cricket’s better sides.
In 92 balls together, Allen and Seifert hammered an unbeaten 175 runs, surpassing England’s Alex Hales and Jos Buttler for the highest partnership in a men’s T20 World Cup.
After his 65 against Afghanistan two days earlier, Seifert added another 89 not out – with 12 fours and three sixes – to move to the top of this year’s World Cup run-scoring charts.
Allen wasn’t far behind, with 84 not out, courtesy of five fours and five sixes, making up for his single-figure score in the opener.
This isn’t even the first time the duo have put on such a demoralising partnership – at the start of 2025, they belted 93 runs in just 39 balls against Pakistan en route to an eight-wicket win in Wellington.
With T20 now being the format on which the game will only continue to expand, the fact that it was Allen and Seifert who led the charge against the UAE was fitting.
New Zealand is arguably the last major cricketing nation to truly embrace the shortest format.
Not only is Aotearoa the only country without a franchise-based domestic T20 competition, but the Black Caps side is still largely made up of all-format players, given how small New Zealand’s player pool is.
In comparison, other countries have all adopted franchise models, and see their national sides filled with short-form specialists.
Allen and Seifert, though, break that mould. Neither holds a New Zealand Cricket central contract, and instead travel the globe playing franchise league after franchise league on casual playing agreements.
Between them, just about every major T20 league is ticked off, from Australia, England and India, to Sri Lanka, Pakistan, the Caribbean and even the USA.
Neither is ever likely to play test cricket, while questions will loom over their place in One-Day Internationals too.
But while there will be snide suggestions about the duo chasing the money, both have been vocal about the positive effect playing in different conditions, with and against some of the best players in the world, is having on their game.
And if the Black Caps are to become a force in T20 cricket, embracing the kinds of players that Allen and Seifert, in tandem, are going to be key.
“We’ve been with each other [since] way back, New Zealand academies during the winter, ” Seifert explained. “We’ve known each other for a long time now.
“It’s nice to open the batting with each other, [after] playing against each other in domestic cricket.
“We’re best mates off the field, we just enjoy the cricket and look to put pressure on the bowlers, and look to have fun as well – which is the main thing.”
Even if he might not be the traditionalist’s idea of a cricketer, Allen, in particular, is the perfect window into what the future of cricket will look like.
Since the start of 2025, he’s played for New Zealand just eight times. In that same span, he’s hammered a record season in Australia’s Big Bash League – hitting the most sixes and finishing as top run-scorer for the Perth Scorchers as they won this year’s title.
That came after scoring 151 off 51 balls for the San Francisco Unicorns in Major League Cricket, surpassing West Indies icon Chris Gayle for the most sixes in an innings, 19.
But playing for New Zealand has always been Allen’s goal. And now, after arriving in India after his season with Perth, he knows the opportunity he and Seifert have at the top of New Zealand’s order.
“The franchise stuff, for me, was an opportunity for me to play in different conditions, learn and grow my game,” said Allen.
“I had the chance to tweak a few things – work on my base, be nice and still at the crease, areas I thought I needed to work on.
“To get some cricket under my belt was a good thing about the Big Bash before this, getting 10-12 games of high-level cricket building into this World Cup.
“I joined up with the team, who’d taken a lot of momentum from the One-Day series, and [lessons] from the T20s as well.
“We’re in a good place.
Alex Powell is a sports journalist for the NZ Herald. He has been a sports journalist since 2016.