New Zealand defeated Pakistan by nine wickets in the first ODI at the Westpac Stadium, Wellington. New Zealand now lead the six-match ODI series by 1-0. 
Shahid Afridi, the Pakistan skipper won the toss and elected to bat first. The visitors got off to a disastrous start when Mohammed Hafeez departed early after facing nine balls to score a duck. Kamran Akmal, back into the national side, scored just eight runs while Asad Shafiq (4) too departed without any major contribution to leave the tourists at 29/3.
Misbah-ul-Haq scored an exact 50 runs from 88 balls. He hit three fours and a six before he was the last man out. Younis (24) and Shahid Afridi (15) were the only other batsmen to score above 10 runs in the innings to go with 10 extras.
The New Zealand bowlers made full use of the bowler-friendly conditions. Tim Southee (5/33) picked up his maiden five-wicket haul and was ably supported by Jacob Oram (2/33) and Hamish Bennett (3/26) to dismiss the visitors to just 124 runs in the 38th over. Brendon McCullum picked up five catches for the fourth time in his career and picked up his 200th catch in this form of the game when he caught Afridi off the bowling of Southee.
New Zealand chased down the required runs in just under 18 overs. Jesse Ryder (55) roared back to form with some lusty hits. He brought up his fifty off just 31 balls and hit six fours and two sixes. He raised 84 runs for the first wicket with Martin Guptill who remained not out on 40 runs. Ross Taylor scored 23 runs and remained undefeated.
For Pakistan, Sohail Tanvir (1/39) picked up the only wicket to fall. Shoaib Akhtar proved expensive giving away 47 runs in his four overs. The second match will be played at Queenstown on 26th January 2011.