On a day when a match turned on its head in under five overs because birthday boy Ross Taylor (131 not out) willed it so, Pakistan, the most unpredictable team in the tournament, crashed to a stunning defeat in a group A match here.
Its famed bowling line up came apart: Shoaib Akhtar conceded 28 runs in one over and Abdul Razzaq came soon after and made Shoaib look better: he gave away 30.
At the end of 45 overs, New Zealand was at a modest 200. By the end of the innings five overs later, it was 302.
In between, Taylor and Jacob Oram put on 85 in 3.4 overs for the seventh wicket. In the last 25 deliveries, New Zealand put in 95.
In reply, chasing under lights the Pakistanis gave up. It crawled to 46 for five at the end of 15 overs and folded up soon enough.
The Ross Taylor act
Taylor, thriving on Pakistani largesse and a wayward Shoaib Akhtar and Abdul Razzaq, helped New Zealand set a target of 303 in the first one day international game at this stadium in a group A match.
Shoaib showered full tosses and forgot the basics of line and length in his third and final spell. The result: 28 runs in an over, the maximum in this World Cup. Well, that was till Razzaq came now. Two overs later, Razzaq, who conceded 30 in an over, holds that record. All the runs were c/o Taylor, who equalled Kevin O'Brien's record of seven sixes in an innings in the world cup.
New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori won the toss, read the pitch correctly and elected to bat on a pitch that had quite a bit of grass.
Shoaib Akhtar, who missed the last match, was in the middle of all action early on.
Three no-balls in three overs, an overthrow, an elaborate discussion with the umpire; a wicket in the first over of the match, heart-break in the first over of his second spell as two catches went down — all the elements that make him Shoaib Akhtar were there.He opened the proceedings with a no-ball according to tv replays, but the umpire missed it.
No fast bowler likes being hit. So when Brendon McCullum swung him over mid-on off a free-hit ball, that too in the first over, Shoaib had to comeback. His comeback ball was not the expected bouncer, but a length delivery pitched far outside the off-stump. It came back in to knock off the off stump. Brendo McCullum did not expect that.
Then came the classic careless Shoaib act. He stopped a ball on the follow through and threw it back to the keeper. The throw sailed over the leaping Kamran Akmal. Another four to the tally. At the end of the ninth over, New Zealand had progressed to 41 for the loss of Brendon. In all, Shoaib gifted them 22 (14 runs off free hits, three no balls, a wide and the overthrow for four). Shoaib was taken off after his indifferent first spell that read 5-0-31-1.
Pakistan showed some refreshing thinking for once and opened the other end with left arm spinner Abdur Rehman. It worked. Rehmankept it tight at one end, giving away 14 runs in his first five-over spell. But with one end leaking, the New Zealand 50 came up in 73 balls.
Shoaib's second spell was better. He found an unsure Taylor's edge which flew between Kamran Akmal and Younus Khan. Both did not move. Again, ball No 3 found Taylor's edge. This time Kamran Akamal did not need to move. The ball came straight to him, and he dropped it. Akmal was to miss another catch to let off a nervy Scott Styris off Afridi. Pakistan paid for these lapses with the match.
Guptill and Taylor steadied the innings. The 100 took 25.2 overs to compile; the 150 came up in the 37th over. An ambitious Guptill attempted to turn a quicker, straight one from Afridi. He missed the line became Afridi's wicket no 15 in this edition of the world cup. James Franklin came and went in quick time, trapped in front by Mohammed Hafeez.
Nathan McCullum hit Afridi over long on and backward of square for two huge sixes, spoiling Afridi's statistics. Nathan departed playing early to a slower one from Umar Gul.
New Zealand: M. Guptill b Afridi 57 (86 b, 6x4), B. McCullum b Akhtar 6 (3b, 1x6), J. How lbw b Gul 4 (29b), R. Taylor (not out) 131 (124b, 8x4, 7x6), J. Franklin lbw b Hafeez 1 (2b), S. Styris lbw b Gul 28 (37b, 1x4), N. McCullum b Gul 19 (10b 1x4, 2x6), J. Oram c Gul b Rehman 25 (9b, 1x4, 3x6), K. Mills (not out) 7 (3b); Extras (nb-3, w-11, lb-10) 24; Total (for seven wkts. in 50 overs) 302.
Fall of wickets: 1-8, 2-55, 3-112, 4-113, 5-175, 6-210, 7-295.
Pakistan: Akhtar 9-0-70-1, Rehman 10-0-60-1, Gul 10-1-32-3, Razzaq 4-0-49-0, Afridi 10-0-55-1, Hafeez 7-0-26-1.
Pakistan: M. Hafeez lbw b Southee 5 (6b, 1x4), A. Shehzad lbw b Mills 10 (16b, 1x4), K. Akmal c Taylor b Southee 8 (16b, 1x4), Younis Khan b Mills 0 (3b), Misbah c Styris b Southee 7 (31b), U. Akmal c Oram b N. McCullum 38 (58b, 3x4), S. Afridi b Oram 17 (9b, 2x4, 1x6), A. Razzaq c Oram b Styris 62 (74b, 9x4), A. Rehman lbw b N. McCullum 1 (10b), U. Gul (not out) 34 (25b, 3x4, 1x6), S. Akhtar c N. McCullum b Styris 0 (2b). Extras (lb-6, w-4): 10, Total (in 41.4 overs): 192.
Fall of wickets: 1-5, 2-23, 3-23, 4-23, 5-45, 6-66, 7-102, 8-125, 9-191.
New Zealand bowling: Mills 8-1-43-2, Southee 8-1-25-3, Oram 10-1-47-1, Franklin 5-0-26-0, N. McCullum 6-0-28-2, Styris 4.4-0-17-2 .