Tim Seifert and Finn Allen produced a world record opening partnership of 175 runs as New Zealand thrashed the United Arab Emirates by 10 wickets in a Group C match at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on Tuesday. The openers from New Zealand took the flimsy bowling of their UAE counterparts apart and won convincingly to make it two out of two at Chennai for New Zealand.
Seifert and Allen batted with an intensity that was impossible to stop right from the beginning. New Zealand sped through the Powerplay, scoring 78 runs in six overs, ruthlessly putting the UAE's fast bowlers to the sword. Overs of 20 and 22 runs were soul-destroying and eliminated any chance that the UAE had of getting back into the contest.
Both openers reached their half-centuries in no time at all, and the first 100-run partnership occurred quickly, as the ball continued to sail over the boundary time after time after time.
Finn Allen was the more “subdued” of the two batters as he finished his innings with 84 runs from 50 balls, while Tim Seifert was a bull in a china shop, scoring 89 runs from only 42 balls.
They created an unbroken opening partnership of 175 runs, which is statistically the highest opening partnership in T20 World Cup history, surpassing some of the best-known opening partnerships in T20 World Cup history.
