Derby: Pak 269/8, NZ 207/8 50 overs 18:40 BST

Inspired, indomitable and indefatigable it seems, Pakistan's cricketers have yet again destroyed an opposition team in today's Group B match at this seventh World Cup of cricket. The rival on this occasion was New Zealand and the venue was the tiny Derby ground, but such is their level of skill and confidence that minor details like who and where seem to make only the barest differences to the Pakistanis' capacity to triumph.

This was indeed another tremendous day among many for Pakistani cricket in this seventh World Cup. Under a thick, persistently grey layer of Derby sky and in the midst of cold and blustery conditions, they had a topsy-turvy morning with the bat (Inzamam-ul-Haq with a belligerent unbeaten 73, and Ijaz Ahmed an impudent 51 the main contributors), but followed it up with an inspired afternoon session with the ball. Indeed, virtually from the moment that the twin wickets of Cairns and Parore fell to Azhar Mahmood (38/3 from his ten fine overs) in the twentieth over and probably even long before that, a Pakistani win was never in doubt. It was merely the exact size of victory (ultimately 62 runs) which remained the major focus of the afternoon's exertions. Their lethal new ball combination of Wasim Akram and Shoaib Akhtar was again magnificent - the latter perhaps even the more impressive of the two today, his effort in removing openers Nathan Astle (0) and Matthew Horne (1) inside his first three overs reducing New Zealand to a sorry early predicament from which they were never likely to recover.

Bedevilled by their opponents' spirit and ever-increasing level of confidence, the New Zealanders - by contrast - turned in another disheartening batting effort today. Earlier in the day, it had been an encouraging performance from their bowlers and fielders and they appeared far from out of the game at the halfway mark in conditions - for all of their wintery appearance - which seemed to favour batsmen. Whilst he was far more expensive than usual, Geoff Allott again underlined his value to his team, collecting another four wickets - the timing of all of them proving beneficial to the Kiwis' efforts to frustrate and slow their opponents' scoring rate. But the closest they came to getting anywhere near on level terms with the bat came when Stephen Fleming (69) and Chris Harris (42) added 83 runs for the seventh wicket - by which time the match had essentially long eluded their grasp. The effort of their openers and most of their upper order was again woefully inadequate today, and they face a real conundrum in knowing how to go about repairing what is becoming an all too serious problem at just the wrong time.

Accordingly, it is Pakistan which emerges from this match with the two points, secures first place in Group B, and condemns New Zealand to the uncertainty of a desperate scramble with both West Indies and Australia for the other two qualifying spots which remain available. The Pakistanis, having almost completely reinvented themselves over recent months since Wasim Akram's return to the captaincy, are truly in glorious form. They are men on a mission here and they are now raising real hopes among their understandably jubilant supporters that there may be even more to celebrate in a matter of three weeks' time. What certainly does seem clear tonight is that they will take a power of beating if they are to be denied the opportunity to claim their second World Cup at that particular moment in cricketing history.

Teams:

New Zealand: Nathan Astle, Matthew Horne, Craig McMillan, Stephen Fleming, Roger Twose, Chris Cairns, Chris Harris, Adam Parore, Dion Nash, Gavin Larsen, Geoff Allott.

Pakistan: Saeed Anwar, Shahid Afridi, Abdur Razzaq, Ijaz Ahmed, Inzamam-ul-Haq, Saleem Malik, Moin Khan, Azhar Mahmood, Wasim Akram, Saqlain Mushtaq, Shoaib Akhtar.