Semi-final hero Finn Allen said New Zealand’s thumping demi-final win over South Africa was a “huge confidence booster” ahead of going for their maiden T20 World Cup title in Sunday’s final.

Opener Allen hit the fastest-ever T20 World Cup century, off 33 balls, to give his side a crushing nine-wicket win over South Africa and set up a final against India or England in Ahmedabad on Sunday.

Allen blasted 10 fours and eight sixes as New Zealand raced to their victory target of 170 with 7.1 overs to spare at Kolkata’s Eden Gardens.

It was a bruising defeat for 2024 runners-up South Africa, who had been unbeaten in the tournament.

“They fight hard, they come hard at us, they’ve got good tall, fast bowlers and it makes it challenging for us,” Allen said of Aiden Markram’s South Africa.

“Their boys hit the ball hard, so to get one over them is a huge confidence booster for us going into Sunday. They’ve been the in-form team the whole tournament.”

The Auckland-born Allen rose to the occasion in the knockout match after ordinary outings in the tournament apart from his unbeaten 84 against the UAE in a group fixture.

Allen said his heroics in India would have kept his parents and the nation awake to cheer the team.

“I’m sure my parents are up watching the whole game. Hopefully, they’re proud.

“But I think as a nation, I think hopefully everyone gets behind us and rallies around us for Sunday,” said Allen.

The final will begin at around 2:30am on Monday morning.

“Obviously, difficult time for people to watch back home but I’m sure people were keeping tabs on the game and hopefully they can get up and have a Monday off at work and watch the final.”

Allen put on 117 with opening partner Tim Seifert, who made 58, to pummel the opposition attack that included high-quality pacemen Kagiso Rabada and Lungi Ngidi.

‘Best seat in the house’

Seifert was the early aggressor as he raced to 41 off 21 balls before Allen took over and finished with two fours, two sixes and a four to raise his hundred and seal victory.

Allen said batting with Seifert makes life easy.

“He’s in incredible form, he’s an incredible player and I think he’s just showing the world what he can do,” said Allen.

“And I think that makes it easy for me to sit back and have the best seat in the house. So, yeah, it’s good fun batting with Timmy.”

New Zealand squeaked into the semi-finals on net run-rate ahead of Pakistan and lost to South Africa by seven wickets in the group stage.

But Allen said a five-match T20 series in India, which the visitors lost 4-1 ahead of the World Cup, prepared them for the grind.

“I think it shows the importance of that India series that the boys played before the World Cup,” he said.

“Five games on all black soil [pitches] and I think it just shows that as a team we get up for the fight [in] those important fixtures.”

LAHORE: It seems that the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) remains extremely confused on where to stage the National T20 Cup as it again shifted the tournament on Wednesday, this time from Multan to Peshawar, the original venue of the event.

This is the third time the venue for the 10-team event was changed in recent days. The matches, according to the latest change, will be played at the Imran Khan Stadium, the new name of Peshawar’s Arbab Niaz Stadium.

On Tuesday, when four participating teams following their travel plan reached Rawalpindi, where the tournament had been moved from Peshawar, they were asked by the PCB to move to Multan, citing that the said event had been shifted there.

As a result, the luggage of the teams was transported to Multan late Tuesday night. However, sources close to the situation told Dawn that now the luggage is returning to Peshawar from Multan.

Earlier, the tournament was to start from March 5 but now due to logistical issues, it will commence from March 7.

Interestingly, HBL Pakistan Super League chief executive Salman Naseer, during a press conference in Lahore on Tuesday, said that the Peshawar venue was not fully prepared to host matches due to some technical issues, including some related to the ground, no match of the PSL-11 will be held there.

Surprisingly, now a national-level tournament has been shifted to Peshawar.

Ten regional teams, divided into two groups, are going to participate in the National T20 Cup.

Lahore Whites, Peshawar, Faisalabad, Karachi Whites and Bahawalpur are included in Group ‘A’ while Group ‘B’ contains Lahore Blues, Sialkot, Multan, Abbottabad and Karachi Blues.

Published in Dawn, March 5th, 2026

LAHORE: A brace by Abu Bakr Mahmood helped Pakistan defeat Austria 4-2 on Wednesday as the Green-shirts reached the semi-finals of the FIH Men’s World Cup qualifier in Ismailia, Egypt on Wednesday.

Pakistan, by winning this match, also topped Pool ‘B’ of the eight-team contest.

Besides Abu Bakr, other two goal scorers for Pakistan were Afraz and Mohammad Sufiyan Khan. For Austria, Kellner Maximilian and Scholz Maximilian scored one apiece.

Afraz gave Pakistan an early lead through a field goal in the fourth minute of the first quarter. Pakistan in the second quarter earned four penalty corners but failed to convert any of them. They got four more penalty corners in the third quarter but all were wasted before Abu Bakr scored in the 44th minute to put his team 2-0 ahead.

In the final quarter, Austria got a couple of penalty corners but could not score.

They finally got their opening goal through Kellner who scored in the 47th minute to reduce the lead to 2-1.

Pakistan then got three more penalty corners quickly but with no goal. Sufiyan in another field attempt then made it 3-1 in the 51st minute. The lead was extended to 4-1 by a goal from Abu Bakr a minute later.

Two minutes later, Scholz scored with a penalty stroke to make it 4-2.

Earlier in the event, Pakistan first defeated China 5-4 and then overpowered Malaysia 5-3 before toppling Austria to top the pool with nine points from three games.

The Ammad Butt-led team now just need to win the semi-final to qualify for this year’s FIH World Cup scheduled be staged in Wavre, Belgium and Amstelveen, Netherlands from Aug 14 to 30. Top three finishers in the Ismailia event will qualify for the World Cup.

Pakistan will play the semi-final either against Japan or Egypt, both having three points each, who were scheduled to meet each other in their last Pool ‘A’ match late Wednesday night.

Published in Dawn, March 5th, 2026