NZ vs BAN | 3rd T20I: Finn Allen punishes Bangladesh bowlers with maiden 18-ball fifty

Young New Zealand opener Finn Allen blasted his way to an 18-ball fifty in the third and final T20I of the series against Bangladesh in Auckland.

In a rain-curtailed 10-over game, Allen got to face bowling only from the third over and he went berserk from the second ball of his innings after Bangladesh decided to filed first winning the toss. He got going with three back to back fours and a six off spinner Nasum Ahmed.

Another back to back boundaries of Shoriful Islam propelled him to 30 runs from a mere 11 ball-long innings. The onslaught kept on getting severe with each passing over even when he lost his opening partner Martin Guptill in the process.

Bangladesh fielders let their bowlers down and kept on gifting lives one after another to Allen. It started in the second over itself when Allen’s reverse sweep was scooped for a four. Three more catches were put down by fielders and Allen was in good enough rhythm with the bat to make them pay for their shoddy efforts.

He finally perished in the process of decimating Bangladesh bowling attack to all parts of the ground having scored 71 runs from 29 balls to set up a big score for New Zealand.

After his dismissal, broadcaster Spark Sport caught up with him and he said, “ We wanted to start as if we were having a 20-over match, give us a couple of balls to get in but once we hit a few, we decided every ball has to go. They may have missed a trick by bowling too full, we'll take that on board.”

New Zealand set Bangladesh a steep target of 142 in a rain-affected game.