Highlights of Pakistan Vs New Zealand, 1st ODI at Abu Dhabi

Pakistan won the 1st ODI of the Cool & Cool Cup at Abu Dhabi by a whooping margin of 138 runs. New Zealand couldn’t withstand the demolition acts from Boom Boom Shahid Afridi and Kamran Akmal which powered Pakistan to a total of 287. The Kiwi batsmen later were outclassed by the Pakistani bowlers who were just too good to handle.

Younus Khan had won the toss and elected to bat first, he announced that 280 is what Pakistan will be looking at. But when the score read 0 for 2 in the 3rd over, Younis’ statement looked ridculous, more so when Pakistan crawled through for the next hour or so. Shane Bond created the jitters in the batting side, starting with a peach of an away going one to have Salman Butt nicking behind in the fourth delivery of the match. In his next over, Bond lured Younus into a false drive to give another catch for Brendon McCullum.

It needed the class of Mohammad Yousuf to repair the ship for Pakistan. His partner at the other end Khalid Latif looked very rash to begin with and showed poor technique in playing the swing bowling of Bond and Southee. Fortunately for Latif, the Kiwi attack for the day was very thin with Kyle Mills not playing because of an injury. Also with the movement ceasing off the track, a partnership was developing along for Pak. Yousuf played a couple of sweet lofted shots and looked good for the long innings before proving yet again that he was a terrible runner between the wickets. Yousuf on 30 tried to steal a single from extra covers but his legs were not quick enough to beat a direct throw. 

Pakistan slipped back into trouble at 57 for 3 and looked hopeless at 75 for 4 when young gun Umar Akmal was outsmarted by a dream delivery from Daniel Vettori. It was a ball that was drifting around middle but turned away enough to hit the off stump leaving Umar Akmal playing along the wrong line. The Kiwis looked very good at this stage to bowl out Pakistan for less than 200. It was expected that the next man in Shahid Afridi would play a reckless shot and get out soon. But Afridi proved his talent and came good with the bat after quite some time. He didn’t curb his natural game and went after both spin and pace alike without any inhibitions.

The Kiwis were struggling to break the partnership between Khalid Latif and Afridi and that brought Pakistan right back in the game. Latif slowly worked his way to a maiden fifty while Afridi blazed away past his 30th ODI fifty in no time. Just when a 100 was in his reach, Afridi got out playing a cute paddle off Oram flat in the air to short fine leg. He scored a superb 70 in just 50 balls with 4 fours and 3 sixes to rescue Pak from 75 for 4 to 176 for 5 in the 39th over. Latif followed him back into the pavilion after getting bowled off Vettori. The opener played an ordinary knock taking as many as 112 balls to score just the 64 runs.

New Zealand at this stage failed to take any wickets in the batting powerplay which was taken in the 43rd over with Kamran Akmal and Abdul Razzaq at the crease. Instead it was Pakistan smashing away more than 50 runs to take the match away from the Kiwis’ reach. All of a sudden, Younis Khan’s 280 was very close by. Kamran Akmal slashed some brilliant sixes over point and covers to finish the innings in style with 67 not out from just 43 balls (5 fours and 4 sixes). Abdul Razzaq joined the party too with a couple of consecutive sixes, he made 26 from 20. The two all-rounders put on 86 for th 7th wicket in 7.1 overs! Pak reached a formidable total of 287 for 9 which was just beyond the reach of the Kiwis.

The New Zealand innings never got going with Mohammad Aamer troubling Brendon McCullum and Aaron Redmond with his slippery pace off the wicket. Aamer was unlucky not to get any wickets initially but his new ball partner Umar Gul got Brendon McCullum (21) and Guptill (4) to play onto the stumps to make the inroads by the 10th over. Aamer finally got a wicket to his name, the big one of Ross Taylor (0) who was caught behind slashing a wide away going one. In the 16th over, NZ slipped to 50 for 4 when Styris was caught well in the deep off a pull to Imran Farhat.

A partnership for the 5th wicket between opener Redmond and Skipper Vettori got going to keep Pakistan waiting. Off Spinner Saeed Ajmal broke the 69-run stand after striking the pad of Redmond (52 from 91 balls with 6 fours) with a quicker one in an attempted sweep. A few overs later, Shahid Afridi came up with two wickets in two balls that of Vettori (38) and Nathan McCullum to have the Kiwis at 139 for 7. The leggie almost got a hat-trick when he pinned back Butler and struck the pad with a googly that just spun past the legstump to defy an lbw. New Zealand were cleaned up soon in just the 40th over for 149. The last six wickets fell at the cost of just 30 runs in the space of 59 balls.

All the five bowlers used by Younis Khan were amongst the wickets and each of them looked penetrative including Abdul Razzaq. Aamer and Ajmal were the most special of all of them as the batsmen could hardly score at a rate of 3 runs an over from them. The Man of the Match was given to Shahid Afridi for his 70 and 2 for 46. The second ODI is at the same venue at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium on Friday.

Tags: New Zealand Cricket, Pakistan Cricket, Pakistan Vs New Zealand, Shahid Afridi