New Zealand vs Pakistan 1st ODI: Grant Elliot and Ross Taylor take New Zealand to a comfortable 7 wicket victory 

By PakPassion Staff (31st January, 2015)

Result : New Zealand win 1st ODI by 7 wickets : Pakistan 210 (Shahid Afridi 67, Misbah-ul-Haq) New Zealand 213/3 in 39.3 (Grant Elliott 64, Ross Taylor 59)


Teams :

New Zealand XI : B McCullum (c), Anderson, Boult, Elliott, Guptill, Latham, N McCullum, Mills, Milne, Ronchi (wk), Taylor.

Pakistan XI: M Hafeez, A Shehzad, Younis Khan, Misbah-ul-Haq (capt), U Akmal, H Sohail, Sarfraz Ahmed (wk), S Afridi, B Bhatti, M Irfan, Ehsan Adil.

Toss : New Zealand won toss and elected to field first.

The first of two match series kicked off with New Zealand winning the toss and opting to bowl first. Mohammad Hafeez and Ahmed Shehzad were the two openers, Pakistan started shakily as usual with Hafeez getting clean bowled for 0 by Mills in the first over. Younis Khan walked out to bat at No. 3 and with Shehzad and they built a stand of 29 runs before Shehzad played a loose shot to get dismissed by Boult for 15 runs.

Misbah walked in next at 29/2 but quickly lost his senior partner Younis khan in the next over as he was given lbw on Mills bowling for the score of 9. Haris Sohail walked in at no. 5, Both played sensibly and took the team forward with their partnership of 49 runs before Haris played a loose cut shot to get dismissed by Anderson for 23 runs.

Next was Umar Akmal, whose stay at the crease was short as he was yorked by a slow delivery from Elliott for 13 runs. Sarfraz Ahmed was next and he couldn't make any significant contribution either as he threw away his wicket for 5 runs when he tried sweeping Anderson at deep square leg. Meanwhile, Misbah reached his half century. 

Shahid Afridi was the next man in and he started his innings with a four. Afridi then went into ballistic mode with his hitting as he hit 7 fours and 3 sixes to reach his half century in 21 balls. Patnership between Misbah and Afridi was booming until Misbah's slog on Anderson couldn't clear the fielder Latham in the deep and he was dismissed for 58. Score was 198 and their partnership laasted 71 runs. 

Bhatti was next and he got dismissed for 0 after facing 2 deliveries of Boult. Afridi also din't last long afterwards as he was dismissed by Milne for 64 runs in the next over. Ehsan and Irfan could add only 7 runs before Ehsan got out to Elliott for 6 runs thus ending Pakistan's inning at the score of 210 in 45 overs.

New Zealand started the chase with Guptill and McCullum, They started with a flyer as total of 7 boundaries were hit in the first two overs of Bhatti and Irfan. Bhatti came back strong in the 3rd over when he dismissed McCullum for 17 runs. Latham was next at 3, the two moved the team total to 75 runs until Latham was stumped by Sarfraz on Afridi's bowling for 23.

Taylor was next at no. 4. Guptill and Taylor added 26 runs more before Guptill departed for 39 by top edging Irfan's rising delivery to deep backward square leg. Score was 101/3 when Elliott joined Taylor, they both milked Pakistani bowlers in the middle overs by taking singles and doubles. The Pakistan bowling in middle overs looked helpless in sustaining pressure. The Elliot-Taylor partnership reached 50 in 10 overs after which they started to increase their scoring rate, with four boundaries being scored on Bhatti in 2 overs.

The two looked comfortable playing Pakistani bowlers, Taylor reached his half century in 72 deliveries. A patient knock from him as he always looked to guide his team home with Elliot who reached his half century couple of overs after. The two took their partnership to over 100 runs and chased the target with almost 10 overs to spare.


Summary

The results of the two prior warm-up games had given no real hope for a positive result in the ODI series and Pakistan did not disappoint on that count. With just one more game to go before the start of the 2015 World Cup, there are serious concerns for Pakistan to address. The most important and obvious one is the failure of the top 4 batsmen to make an impact on the game and in that regard, Younis Khan will be feeling the heat more than many others. The next and final ODI game of this short series is on the 3rd of February. Time is running out for Pakistan.

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