New Zealand eke out stunning win over Pakistan

The variety in the Pakistani bowling attack could not stop a spirited New Zealand team from entering their 2nd Champions Trophy final as the Kiwis won the 2nd semi-final by 5 wickets and with 13 balls to spare. Batting first after Younus Khan won the toss, Pakistan chose to bat 1st and posted a modest 233 for the loss of 9 wickets. New Zealand, whose win-loss ratio in Champions Trophy matches is second only to Australia made heavy weather of the chase but eventually got there thanks mainly to Grant Elliott’s unbeaten 75 and skipper Daniel Vettori’s all-round efforts.

On a wicket that looked like a belter for batting, Pakistan got off to a steady start with the 1st wicket falling in the 10th over by which time the openers had put on 46.

Imran Nazir who replaced Misbah-ul-Haq in the final XI opened the innings alongwith Kamran Akmal, was sent back first after which wickets kept falling at regular intervals.

Younis Khan’s poor form with the bat continued in this game as well and the innings looked in trouble at 86/4 when promising young bat Umer Akmal came into join another senior pro in Mohammad Yousuf. The two resurrected the innings with Akmal especially playing some delightful shots, his knock contained 7 hits to the fence.

A rare poor decision by Simon Taufel brought his innings to an abrupt end and but for an unbeaten 35 run stand from the 10th wicket pair of Saeed Ajmal and Mohammed Amer, the innings wouldn’t have reached a respectable but well below-par 233. Ian Butler was the most successful bowler with 4 wickets to his credit and Vettori himself accounted for 3 of his own. Butler’s 4 for 44 were his career best figures.

The New Zealand openers looked positive in their intent with McCullum hitting a 6 and a 4 in the 1st two overs. But much like the Pakistanis, there was no real big partnership as a result of which Pakistan were always kept in the game.

At 126/4 when Ross Taylor perished to Afridi after having dispatched him for a 6 in the same over, things looked good for the T20 World Champions, especially coz the batsman at the other end, Grant Elliott was struggling to get things going.

In came Daniel Vettori then, promoting himself up the order and alongwith Elliott, he went about building a partnership that was required to calm the nerves in the dressing room.

Runs were still hard to come though and with the required run rate steadily climbing up all the time, Younis Khan dropped a sitter that could have dismissed Elliott. The batsman was on 42 then, and New Zealand still required 69 from 11 overs at that point in time. Vettori didn’t waste much thereafter in taking the batting powerplay and runs started to leak. 55 runs came in those 5 overs which eventually made all the difference. Vettori got out during the fag end of the innings but the match was as good as sealed by then.

For his efforts with the ball and for his knock of 41 that came off just 42 balls, he was named the ‘Man of the Match’.

The Kiwis will now face their Trans-Tasman rivals Australia in Monday’s final at the Centurion.