Pakistan v New Zealand World Cup Highlights

New Zealand defeated Pakistan by a huge 110 runs in their Group A match at the Pallekele International Cricket Stadium. The win took New Zealand to the top of the table on net run rate.>

New Zealand won the toss and elected to bat first. Brendon McCullum (6) started off well pulling Shoaib Akhtar for a six but was bowled the very next ball. Jamie How struggled at the crease, facing 29 balls for his four runs.>

Martin Guptill and Ross Taylor then added 57 runs for the third wicket in almost 16 overs. Guptill scored 57 runs from 86 balls with six fours before he was bowled by Shahid Afridi. James Franklin (1) too followed Guptill soon to leave the Kiwis struggling at 113/4. New Zealand recovered through a 62-run partnership for the fifth wicket between Taylor and Scott Styris (28).

Taylor was cautious in the first half of his innings bringing his fifty off 78 balls. At the end of 44 overs, New Zealand were 188/5 and 250 looked a tough ask for them. However, Taylor, in partnership with Nathan McCullum (19 runs from 10 balls) and Jacob Oram (25 runs from 9 balls), looted 114 runs off the last six overs.

Taylor brought up his maiden World Cup century in 117 balls and remained unbeaten on 131 runs that came from just 124 balls. He hit eight fours and seven sixes. For Pakistan, Umar Gul (3/32) was the pick of the bowlers. Akhtar and Abdul Razzaq proved expensive at the end giving away 28 and 30 runs respectively off one over.

Pakistan’s chase began on a sorry note losing four wickets with just 23 runs on the board as Mohammed Hafeez (5), Ahmed Shehzad (10), Kamran Akmal (8) and Younis Khan (0) found it tough to handle the Kiwi bowlers. Misbah-ul-Haq scored just seven runs while Afridi was bowled by Oram for 17. Abdul Razzaq top-scored for Pakistan with 62 runs off 74balls and added 66 runs with Gul (34) for the ninth wicket. For New Zealand, Tim Southee took 3/25 in his eight overs. Ross Taylor was rightly chosen as the player of the match.