Zaman says perfect planning helped Pakistan stay ahead of the rain

BENGALURU : Pakistan's Fakhar Zaman said the team's planning had gone into overdrive at the first hint of rain, after the batsman smashed a century to help his team seal a 21-run victory over New Zealand via the DLS method that kept their semi-final hopes alive.

Pakistan overcame the early loss of opening batsman Abdullah Shafique in their chase of 402, as Zaman smashed an unbeaten 81-ball 126 in the company of skipper Babar Azam who hit 66 not out to keep them ahead of the DLS par score after two rain delays.

The 1992 champions were on 200-1 in 25.3 overs when play was called off with the duo pummelling 14 fours and 13 sixes to blow New Zealand away.

"We thought it would rain and planned accordingly," Zaman told reporters. "We sent a message to the management after 15 overs that it was drizzling, tell us how many overs because we knew that before 20 overs the DLS method isn't applicable.

"So we asked them what target we needed to achieve in 20 overs. Of course, planning is important at that stage, playing without planning is very difficult. We had planned yesterday also and even today we played over by over."

Zaman said fifth-placed Pakistan had backed themselves to chase down the daunting target on a good wicket in Bengaluru.

"When Abdullah played the first over, I asked him, and then I played the second over – so we decided that the wicket is very good for batting. We have to survive the first four overs," Zaman added.

"Abdullah got out but I knew the wicket was good, so as soon as Babar came out, I told him the wicket isn't swinging. If we maintain a good partnership, it'll be easy for us later.

"We understood very early on... that we can chase 400."