Two-down in the five-match series, Pakistan opted to bowl in the third T20I, at the University Oval in Dunedin. They got Devon Conway early, but Finn Allen turned out to be another proposition altogether.

Allen took 26 balls to reach his first fifty and another 22 for his second. By the time he fell for a 62-ball 137 (5 fours, 16 sixes), New Zealand had raced to 203 in the 18th over. They eventually made 224-7, and restricted Pakistan to take an unassailable 3-0 lead in the series.

Allen’s score is now the highest for New Zealand in T20Is. He went past Brendon McCullum’s 58-ball 123 against Bangladesh at Pallekele in the 2012 T20 World Cup, and Suzie Bates’ 66-ball 124 not out against South Africa at Taunton in 2018.

This is also the highest T20I score against Pakistan by some distance. Mark Chapman’s previous record was only 104 not out, off 57 balls, at Rawalpindi in 2023.

Allen also equalled the world record for most sixes in a T20I. Hazratullah Zazai had also hit 16 sixes against Ireland at Dehradun in 2018/19. In all Twenty20 cricket, only Chris Gayle (18 and 17) and Punit Bisht (17) have hit more, while Graham Napier and Dasun Shanaka have also hit 16 sixes in an innings.

Allen became the 14th man to score a hundred runs in a T20I solely in boundaries. His 116 boundary runs here are the fifth-most in history, after Zazai’s 140 (11 fours, 16 sixes), Aaron Finch’s 128 (11 fours, 14 sixes) and 124 (16 fours, 10 sixes), and Zeeshan Kukikhel’s 118 (7 fours, 15 sixes).

In all Twenty20 cricket, Allen has now scored 3,122 runs at 170 – the highest strike rate for anyone with a 1,500-run cut-off. Andre Russell (7,799 runs at 167) is second. Among New Zealand batters, Colin de Grandhomme (4,110 at 156) is the closest to Allen.

Allen’s strike rate of 184 is also the highest on New Zealand soil with a 1,000-run cut-off. He is well clear of de Grandhomme’s 167.

Watch Finn Allen equal the world record of 16 sixes en route to 137:

 

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