"We had a bit of a deal before the series" - Finn Allen on smashing Haris Rauf for 28 runs

New Zealand opener Finn Allen revealed a cheeky pre-T20I series 'deal' with Pakistani pacer Haris Rauf where the fast-bowler wouldn't bowl him any bouncers and he would repay by not taking him on.

But the third T20I went completely the opposite way. Two of the first three balls Rauf bowled to him in the fourth over of the first innings were bumpers. Allen couldn't connect them but in the sixth over, he hit Rauf for 27 runs, including three sixes and two fours. Three of those boundaries came off short balls.

Rauf came back to bowl the 12th over and Allen again hit three sixes. Overall, the Kiwi smashed 47 runs in 14 balls against the right-arm quick, on the way to his record-breaking 62-ball 137 which took New Zealand to 224/7.

"Yes, we had a bit of a deal before the series that he [Rauf] wouldn’t bowl me any bumpers and I wouldn’t hit any back at him. He bowled me a bumper, so...," he said with a laugh in the mid-innings break.

Babar Azam again top-scored for Pakistan in the second innings with a 58 (37) but no other batter crossed 28 and the visitors crumbled to 179/7, conceding a 3-0 defeat in the five-match rubber.

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"I have been keeping things simple" - Finn Allen

Allen shared a 135-run partnership with Tim Seifert for the second wicket where the latter played second fiddle with just 31 (23).

"We (him and Seifert) assessed the wicket you know," the opener said. "We thought that strong positions and good cricket shots would give us, sort of, good rewards, and having Tim there, we had a bit of laugh on the way. It was good fun, yeah."

This was Allen's second Player of the Match performance. In the second T20I, he scored a 41-ball 74 following a 15-ball 34 in the previous game. Asked about the reason behind his form, he pointed to coach Gary Stead's advice on keeping things simple and trying to hit straight down the wicket.

He added:

"I have been keeping things simple, putting in the work throughout the series and trying to go into the game with the same gameplan."

The fourth T20I between New Zealand and Pakistan will be played on January 19 in Christchurch.