Lynn McConnell
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3rd ODI: New Zealand v Pakistan at Wellington (WTS), 22 Feb 2001 Lynn McConnell |
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Pakistan innings:
Pre-game: New Zealand innings: |
New Zealand was all out for 215.
All that some spirited lower order hitting from Adam Parore, who was 34 not out, achieved was a narrowing of the final losing margin.
New Zealand were again the victim of a top-order collapse from which they never recovered.
A fighting 100-run partnership between Craig McMillan and Lou Vincent offered some hope but once Vincent was neatly stumped for 34 the pressure was well and truly on.
New Zealand's chase effectively ended with McMillan's dismissal for 64. He attempted to repeat the six he hit off Waqar Younis, just after he achieved his 50. But he didn't get onto the ball from Abdur Razzaq and was held by Yousuf Youhana.
Two balls later, Chris Harris was gone, leg before wicket to Razzaq, the third New Zealander to fall foul of umpire Dave Quested.
At 152/6, and a long tail as a result of Jacob Oram's absence and the decision not to include Andre Adams, the job was always going to be tough for the home team.
Daniel Vettori departed bowled when leaving room to try and play a shot through the offside for seven runs.
It was left to Wasim Akram and Saqlain Mushtaq to complete the innings. Waqar took one for 44, Azhar one for 33 and Razzaq 2-44.
It took Saqlain only five balls to remove James Franklin for eight, beaten and bowled by his other one. With Daryl Tuffey coming in the requirement was an improbable 57 from 38 balls.
Tuffey saw the requirement reduced to 37 but only 17 balls remained. Parore provided some momentary respite with a six from Wasim Akram to lift the score to 207 but Tuffey attempted to hit a six for himself from the first ball of the 48th over but was easily taken at square leg by Saleem Elahi.
Chris Martin was the last man out, beaten by a Wasim yorker and bowled for one.
Wasim finished with three for 41 from his 9.2 overs. Saqlain Mushtaq took three for 26 from nine overs.
However, a significant breakthrough was made by Pakistan in the 27th over when Vincent was out to leave New Zealand on 118/4.
Coming together at 18/3 they showed no signs of panic and produced a sensible accumulation.
McMillan had partial reward for his efforts when hitting his 11th One-Day International half century in the 29th over, from 73 balls and he hit five fours. He celebrated the achievement by pulling the first ball of the 30th over, bowled by Waqar Younis for six into the square leg crowd.
At the end of 30 overs, New Zealand was 134/4 with McMillan on 57 and Chris Harris on three.
McMillan and Vincent kept the score moving, often with sharply run singles, that generally correctly calculated the amount of risk involved.
Their 50-partnership was reflected in this policy, coming from 54 balls.
Vincent was given a let off in the 23rd over bowled by Abdur Razzaq when he lofted a ball to deep mid wicket where Yousuf Youhana not only dropped the simple chance, but also helped it into the boundary for four. Vincent was on 26 at the time and the boundary brought up New Zealand's 100 from 145 balls.
The pressure on the field told at times with an attempted run out not being backed up at the bowler's end and resulting in four overthrows for a five.
Just after they achieved their 100-run partnership from 123 balls, Vincent was stumped by a superbly predatory piece of wicket-keeping by Moin. He seemed to sense that Vincent was having trouble with his balance and he wisely held the ball before lifting the bails, winning the third umpire's verdict by a whisker.
Vincent walked off to a standing ovation for the fighting manner of his performance, both in the field earlier and in backing up McMillan's recovery mission.
Vincent scored 34 from 61 balls, and the partnership was 127 balls long. His score surpassed by one his previous best score, achieved in Napier on Tuesday.
After 15 overs, New Zealand was 66/3 with Craig McMillan (22) and Lou Vincent (17) having added 48 runs for the fourth wicket.
Three wickets fell in 15 balls to quickly remove the troublesome New Zealand top order. Captain Stephen Fleming became the latest sacrificial offering for the troublesome opening spot.
But he could not resolve the problem.
Fleming was unlucky to be given out leg before wicket. In a series where the umpires have been strangely reluctant to make any decisions of the type, Fleming was given out to a shout less convincing than several for both teams in earlier games.
It didn't help that it came after Akram over-stepped the crease clearly but was not called by umpire Dave Quested.
Roger Twose's horror run continued when he edged Waqar Younis to wicket-keeper Moin Khan when he had scored only one.
Then Astle, who was clearly unimpressed with Quested's decision that removed Fleming, went the same way for 10 runs in Akram's next over.
Craig McMillan and Lou Vincent came together and Vincent got their scoring underway with a lovely four off his legs from Waqar's bowling.
Then in his next over, McMillan took 12 runs, all fours, one pulled, one cover driven off the back foot then four over the slips cordon.
Azhar Mahmood and Abdur Razzaq were then introduced in a double bowling change which saw New Zealand's 50 come up in the 13th over from 75 balls.
Razzaq had problems with his run up in his first over and had three no balls while Vincent played one sumptuous pull shot for four off one of the no balls. Twelve runs came from the over. However, he tidied up considerably in his second over, conceding only one run.
Some outstanding lower order hitting orchestrated by Yousuf Youhana (47), Moin Khan (15), Wasim Akram (10) and Azhar Mahmood (16) took the New Zealand attack apart when it seemed Pakistan had blown its chance for a competitive score.
It was helter skelter stuff that tested the younger Kiwi bowlers James Franklin and Daryl Tuffey were given a working over. Franklin's eight overs cost 61 runs but he had the comfort of three wickets. Tuffey also had three wickets but for 52 runs.
There was a moment of controversy at the start of the 37th over, Chris Harris' last when Saeed Anwar pulled a ball to the backward square leg boundary where Roger Twose leapt in the air and was over the boundary rope.
Before he landed, however, he threw the ball back into the field of play and the batsmay was only able to claim one run instead of six. There was a consultation between umpire Steve Dunne and third umpire Evan Watkin and it was ruled one run.
Drinks were taken at the end of the over and after the break it was obvious that Anwar and Yousuf Youhana had tried to up the run rate in the final 12 overs.
But from the penultimate ball of the next over Youhana turned the ball square only to have Lou Vincent race in, make a sprawling dive and throw the ball to bowler Daniel Vettori who had the bails off to secure an easy run out.
Anwar's innings of 57 was scored from 93 balls. At the time of his dismissal Pakistan were 152/4.
Abdur Razzaq, batting down the order, began to run the short singles in league with Youhana but when he tried to hit over the top he wasn't able to clear Lou Vincent at wide mid on and was ought for eight. The brakes went on Pakistan again with the score 177/5.
Harris finished with two for 31 from his 10 overs while Vettori found the going a little tougher than in the last two games and he finished with none for 43 from 10 overs.
The return of Daryl Tuffey for the 46th over helped Pakistan over the 200 mark when full tosses from the first and second balls of the over were hit backward of square and through mid wicket respectively by Yousuf Youhana.
However, with Moin Khan attempting to guide balls to the third man area, he failed to heed the warning when a shot was stopped by Nathan Astle at deep gully.
Youhana hit two next ball, but Moin ran one short. He was out next ball caught by Astle, at the second take at deep gully.
Wasim Akram's arrival sparked some fireworks. The second ball he received was hit for a huge six over long on. He gave young left-armer James Franklin a real working over but Franklin had the final say when deep cover sweeper Vettori held a catch running in as Akram tried an inside-out shot.
Youhana batted nicely through the final overs and pushed the boundaries at every opportunity. It was his batting that lifted the rate and on 47 he tried to go over long off but skied the ball more than he wanted and was held by Nathan Astle who completed a good running catch.
Saeed Anwar continued to play the leading hand for Pakistan in the third game of the National Bank series with New Zealand in Wellington today.
While his team-mates, opener Imran Nazir, playing in his first game of the series, and Saleem Elahi, both out-scored Anwar in their stints at the crease. But as the runs became harder to get with Daniel Vettori, Chris Harris and Nathan Astle attempting to tie down the batsman Anwar's presence became all the more crucial.
Nazir departed in the seventh over having hit 32 off 23 balls with the score 45/1 while Saleem after a slow start, taking 19 balls to get off the mark hit 30 off the next 46 balls.
It did take a superb caught and bowled diving catch by Harris to remove Saleem. The leading New Zealand wicket-taker in ODIs had to dive to his right to snare the chance just off the ground. Pakistan was 105/2, the 60 runs for the second wicket came off 105 balls.
Anwar was 45 not out and Inzamam-ul-Haq seven not out at the 30-over mark.
After 15 overs, Pakistan after a lightning assault had been pulled back by the New Zealand attack to 69/1. Anwar was 22 not out off 40 balls and Saleem Elahi 11 not out.
Imran Nazir took advantage of his call-up for his first match of the series by racing into the scoring habit. He took control of the opening partnership of 45 runs with runs coming at better than a run a ball.
He took successive fours from Chris Martin and there would have been a third in Martin's second over, had it not pulled up just inside the long on boundary.
But, in a humorous moment, Saeed Anwar thought he had hit the ball well enough to be a four and he barely jogged the length of the pitch before he looked up and saw the ball pulling up short. He ran harder but was only to get two, when he should have had three, and possibly four all run.
Imran then hit a sweetly-timed drive into the ground seating at deep mid wicket for six runs.
In the next over, bowled by Daryl Tuffey, he took two boundaries, including a fine square drive off the back foot, but New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming moved to close cover and placed Nathan Astle at close mid wicket.
The move had the desired effect when Imran, was not satisfied with taking 10 runs from the over and attempted to loft a drive but couldn't get past Fleming who held a sharp chance.
Imran had taken 23 balls for his 32 which included five fours and a six.
The run rate slowed considerably after his exit although the 50 was still posted off 52 balls.
However, Saleem Elahi took 19 balls to get off the mark.
Martin pulled back the early assault on his bowling and after seven overs he had 30 runs against him.
Shoaib Akhtar was ruled out as he was still suffering the effects of his injury and his replacement is Azhar Mahmood who will be playing his 100th One-Day International.
Shahid Afridi has been replaced by Saleem Elahi while Imran Farhat's poor start to the tour has seen him replaced by Imran Nazir.
New Zealand have avoided the temptation to include Andre Adams to test his at-the-death bowling and the team will be the same as that which levelled the series in Napier on Tuesday.
Stephen Fleming is to play his 150th ODI. He celebrated by winning his second toss in succession, a rare feat for him this summer and he asked Pakistan to bat first.
Conditions for the game are fine with Wellington's ever present breeze manifested in a northerly of significantly reduced proprotions from that usually experienced at the city's traditional Test match ground, the Basin Reserve. The stadium which was opened last year is completely enclosed and is specially designed to limit the effects of the wind.
New Zealand - Stephen Fleming (captain), Nathan Astle, Adam Parore, Roger Twose, Craig McMillan, Chris Harris, Lou Vincent, Daniel Vettori, Daryl Tuffey, James Franklin, Chris Martin. (12th man Andre Adams).
Pakistan - Moin Khan (captain), Inzamam-ul-Haq, Saeed Anwar, Imran Nazir, Yousuf Youhana, Abdur Razzaq, Azhar Mahmood, Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis, Saleem Elahi. (12th man Shahid Afridi).
The umpires are: Steve Dunne and Dave Quested. (Evan Watkin - third umpire).
© CricInfo
Date-stamped : 23 Feb2001 - 10:23