Pakistan made two changes – Mhammad Sami and Abdur Rehman replaced Mohammad Asif and Fawad Alam.

New Zealand also made two changes – Ian Buttler and Kyle Mills came in for Tim Southee and Jacob Oram.

Teams
Pakistan: Salman Butt, Kamran Akmal (wk), Mohammad Hafeez, Umar Akmal, Shahid Afridi (captain), Misbah-ul-Haq, Abdul Razzaq, Abdul Rehman, Mohammad Aamer, Mohamamd Sami, Saeed Ajmal.

New Zealand: Brendon McCullum, Jesse Ryder, Martin Guptill, Ross Taylor, Scott Styris, Gareth Hopkins (wk), Ian Buttler, Daniel Vettori (captain), Nathan McCullum, Kyle Mills, Shane Bond.

Having lost to Australia by 34 runs in the first round, Pakistan fumbled against England in the Super Eights match on Thursday, and lost by six wickets with batting and fielding performance letting them down badly.

Meanwhile, New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori gave his side a stark warning to improve their performance against Pakistan  in the crucial Super Eights clash here on Saturday or forget about reaching the semi-finals of the World Twenty20.

The Black Caps suffered their first loss of this tournament when they began the Super Eights with a 13-run loss to South Africa that was more comprehensive than the result suggests.

Having previously defeated Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe in the group phase, Vettori’s men will now probably need to beat both defending champions Pakistan and England if they are to reach the last four.

Shahid Afridi won the toss in this second and final match and his side batted first. The openers put on 40 in 4.3 overs before last match hero Imran Nazir got bowled by Butler for a 12-ball 19. Butler then went on to remove Kamran Akmal (26 from 22) just a couple of overs after Nazir’s wicket. Pakistan fought back after this phase through Umar Akmal and Shahid Afridi. The Pakistan Skipper came up with a 17-ball 22 while Umar Akmal stayed right till the end with an unbeaten 56 from 49 balls with 5 fours and a six. The youngster also picked up the Man of the Match for this responsible knock. Butler did well for the Kiwis taking 3 for 28.

The Kiwis were off to a dull start with 46 for 2 on the board in 8.1 overs. Skipper Brendon McCullum restrained himself from playing the flashy innings and tried to guide New Zealand through to victory. But he fell in the penultimate over with still 22 needed to win from 10 balls. McCullum scored 47 from 41 balls with 3 fours and a six. Scott Styris chipped in with 43 from 33 balls with 2 fours and 2 sixes but couldn’t finish the game in New Zealand’s favour. The Kiwis finished at a pale 146 for 5. The Pakistani Captain Shahid Afridi was named as the Player of the Series.

The Black Caps were a weakened unit going into this match with Skipper Daniel Vettori opting out because of showing the after effects of taking a blow around his ear from a Mohammad Aamer bouncer in the 2nd ODI. The New Zealanders did well to keep Pakistan down to 56 for 2 in 8 overs after removing the Akmal Brothers cheaply. Imran Nazir at one end was doing all the damage with his crisp hitting but the opener couldn’t go beyond a 38-ball 58 (with 5 fours and 4 sixes). Skipper Shahid Afridi clouted a six over long on but his innings was just a cameo with 24 from 16 balls. Apart from Nazir and Afridi, there weren’t any scores coming in from the rest of the batsmen.

Pakistan had a good couple of last overs thanks to Razzaq (26* from 15 balls) and Sohail Tanvir (12 from 8 balls). Shane Bond was the pick of the bowlers giving away just 17 besides taking two wickets in his 4 overs. Aaron Redmond with his flighted leg breaks took the important wickets of Afridi and Malik but in the course also strained his groin.

After a sorry first over that went for 17 runs, Mohammad Aamer along with Sohali Tanvir struck back to make inroads for Pakistan. The inform Brendon McCullum who was leading the side got out square driving after a 13-ball 19 and was followed by Ross Taylor who got out to another loose cut shot. Pakistan kept on getting wickets regularly and the job for the spinners became too easy. The Kiwis were bowled out for 112 in 18.3 overs with regular opener Aaron Redmond not coming to bat at all. Imran Nazir got the Man of the Match award. The second and final T20I is tonight at this same venue.

Pakistan will be led by Shahid Afridi and they have three fresh players in Imran Nazir, Fawad Alam and Sohail Tanvir. New Zealand have some injury worries and will go into the match without Jacob Oram, Kyle Mills and James Franklin.

The match is at 20:00 local or 16:00 GMT and the second and final T20I is at the same time tomorrow.

New Zealand won a crucial toss and elected to bat first. They were setting themselves nicely for the 300-mark after a lovely opening start of 72 in 11.3 overs. Redmond’s slash at thirdman finally got some smiles in the Pakistani fielders. Off spinner Saeed Ajmal made it 88 for 2 when he forced a leading edge from Martin Guptill in the 17th over. It was the turn of the Kiwis to fight back and they did it through a 50-run stand between Brendon McCullum and Ross Taylor. Shoaib Malik broke the partnership when he got a return catch from the dangerous McCullum (76 from 78 balls with 6 fours and 3 sixes).

Pakistan were red hot in the middle overs with the spin trio of Ajmal, Afridi and Malik bowling plenty of dot balls to pile up the pressure on the Kiwis. The batsmen too were not good enough to get their bats down on time to block some deadly quicker ones. New Zealand out of nowhere, from 138 for 3 slipped to 198 for 9. They finished with a disappointing 211 all out in 46.3 overs. Ross Taylor scored 44 from 69 before he played across the line to get lbw to Ajmal. Broom was lbw to a skidding googly from Afridi. Skipper Vettori and Jacob Oram were both lbw to Ajmal’s quick skidding deliveries that came back with the arm. Saeed Ajmal bowled a magic spell indeed with 4 for 33 in his 10 overs. Shoaib Malik did a good job along with Afridi at a time when Ajmal left the field due to cramps.

Pakistan got off to a solid start, with 47 on the board in over 8 overs. Vettori had to bring himself in early and he provided the opening by striking the pad of Khalid Latif (19). In the 11th over, an out-of-form and a totally nervous Younis Khan ran out a well set Salman Butt (25). A ball later, the Pakistani Captain got dismissed for 3 from 16 balls after edging an away going one off Bond. Pakistan were now on the backfoot at 51 for 3 and the Kiwis were smart enough to control the match after this.

A series of short balls brought the wicket of Shoaib Malik which was followed up with three big wickets that of Umar Akmal (edging a cut shot), Shahid Afridi (edging a booming drive on the up) and Kamran Akmal (playing a horrendous pull shot). The last hope – Abdul Razzaq was run out and Pakistan were embarassed at 86 for 8. The Black Caps had to wait about 10 overs before they could get rid off Umar Gul off a pick up shot to deep mid wicket.

The match did not finish quickly as expected as the 10th wicket pair of Aamer and Ajmal could succeed in prolonging it further and further. Aamer started a possible fightback with three slog sweeps for three sixes off Vettori. The left hander never looked in trouble and even played a glorious inside out cover drive off Shane Bond. Along with Ajmal, he brought the target down unknowingly and moments later, Pakistan were nervously inching towards a victory with just 13 more needed to win from the final two overs. Aamer was confident having got past a maiden ODI fifty but his partner Ajmal left him down in the end after hooking in the air to fine leg in the first ball of the last over with Pakistan needing 8 runs to win off 6 balls.

Saeed Ajmal was dismissed for 33 (from 44 balls with 2 fours) while his partner Mohammad Aamer was the hero with an unbeaten 73 from 81 balls with 7 fours and 3 sixes. They almost robbed what could have been a famous victory for Pakistan in the end and leaving Vettori furious. For New Zealand, the best bowler was Jacob Oram with 3 for 20 in 9.1 overs but the opening in the match was certainly given by Vettori and Bond. Aamer got the Man of the Match for his all-round efforts while Brendon McCullum was given the Player of the Series.

Surprisingly, the Skipper himself – Younis Khan has been the culprit so far in both the matches. In the first match, he got out playing a reckless drive when Pakistan didn’t even open its account and in the second game, he never took any risks that were needed with the required run rate climbing up beyond the middle order’s reach. Younis will have to lead the team from the front and with Afridi being consistently successful, it looks like a lot of pressure is mounting on the present Pakistan Captain. Younis performs under pressure, one knock which proves is a century against India in the Kitply Cup Final when his team was chasing 300 plus target. So Pakistan can pin their hopes on him to come good in today’s third and final ODI.

The Kiwis will be hoping to win the toss and bat again. Not sure if Brendon McCullum can strike gold twice so its important for someone like Ross Taylor to play to his potential. The young man is a class act but is not that mature enough to bring out the best from himself on a consistent basis. I guess just occupying the crease should be enough for this talented Ross Taylor. With the kind of shots he has got, a slow start can always be converted into a run-a-ball knock within no time.

Another player who is having a certain problem is Salman Butt. His temperament is surely proved after a century in front of a 100,000 people in Kolkata against India a few years back. Butt is a good player to watch because of his unique wristy drives on the off side. The left hander has plenty of problems, he has done enough damage I suppose for Pakistan with his slow batting. If I remember he was instrumental in Pakistan’s loss in the T20 World Cup final against India in 2007 because of playing too many dot balls. Well the same had happened in the second ODI as well, so Butt has got to change his game plan slightly. He needs to show the urgency in his batting so that the middle order batsmen do not get burdened of scoring runs quickly all the time. I have this gut feeling that in an ODI, Pakistan should not have two specialist openers. They should have atleast one opener who can do the demolishing act during the 1st powerplay when the ball is coming onto the wicket.

Pakistan seriously needs to tinker with its top order. It will be good if either Kamran Akmal or Shoaib Malik open the innings. The second ODI saw lot of six hitters including Mohammad Yousuf getting wasted under the pressure of achieving the tough task of getting about 160 runs in the last 20 overs. And again, Umar Akmal is needed for Pakistan, it was shocking to see him sit on the bench in the last ODI. Either Khalid Latif or Salman Butt should be dropped for this decider to make way for Umar Akmal.

Well to round off, Pakistan’s chances of a win today is more when they bat first, get about 250 and leave the rest to their bowling. New Zealand’s chances are by batting first too but they would need 300 like in the last game. Their fielding will make sure that Pakistan will have to chase that extra 20-30 runs always.

New Zealand found a way of beating Pakistan today which was to bat first and post a good total on board. They did that through Brendon McCullum’s 131 in the first session. It was positive cricket right from the decision taken by Vettori after winning the toss. They lost Aaron Redmond lofting one flat to mid off in the 5th over but recovered quickly with Brendon McCullum and Martin Guptill playing good shots. Mohammad Aamer didn’t look that great today and the pitch too looked very good for batting with zero lateral movement.

It was only in the 24th over that Pakistan could finally break the partnership between McCullum and Guptill after the latter was caught at sweeper covers. Guptill was in fine touch having lofted a couple of sixes in a well paced 62 that laid the foundation for the Kiwis at 147 for 2. However, little did he know that his exit was paving way for a mini collapse with three wickets falling in the space of 23 balls including that of his own. Ross Taylor failed again and this time inside edged a slider from Afridi in the 25th over. Three overs later, Scott Styris was run out after ball watching rather than responding to his partner.

New Zealand slipped to 160 for 4 when Skipper Daniel Vettori joined McCullum. Vettori showed all his maturity to hang in there along with McCullum and steer New Zealand out of trouble. Vettori was even hit on the helmet grill by a nasty short one from Mohammad Aamer. The left hander perished in the 38th over but not before he took NZ past 200 with McCullum. Vettori scored 30 from 33 in a partnership of 54 for the 5th wicket. McCullum after that completed his second ODI century and got New Zealand to a commanding 274 for 7 in the 47th over when he dragged a slog onto the stumps. The NZ Wicket Keeper scored 131 in 129 balls with 14 fours and 3 sixes. Big man Jacob Oram remained unbeaten on a run-a-ball 33 to guide the Black Caps to 303. It was an off day to all the bowlers except Shahid Afridi who got 2 for 49.

The Pakistani opening pair of Khaled Latif and Salman Butt no doubt put on a solid opening stand but they never could stamp their authority on the bowlers. The two openers kept New Zealand interested in the game as the required run rate was never coming down below the 6.00 mark. In the 17th over, Khalid Latif’s stay in the middle was finished by a Vettori arm ball. Latif scored 45 in 52 balls in an opening partnership of 77 and he struck the ball very sweetly today unlike the 1st ODI.

Pakistan just didn’t get the move on even after the arrival of their Skipper Younus Khan. The boundaries were eluding him and Salman Butt which just kept on adding up the pressure on the team. In the 28th over, Younis Khan’s 37-ball 19 came to a halt after getting brilliantly caught by Ross Taylor at mid wicket. Styris was the bowler who broke this 47-run stand gave two more deadly blows in succession dismissing last match heroes Afridi (first ball duck getting caught at mid wicket and Kamran Akmal (4) slashing one to covers. Pak were now at 133 for 4 and moments after that lost Salman Butt (59 from 81) through a run out.

The experienced trio of Yousuf, Malik and Razzaq couldn’t do much about bringing Pakistan back in the game as the match was already lost by then with as many as 170 to win from 19.3 overs with five wickets in hand. Yousuf was done in by an arm ball from Vettori in the 35th over and Malik after a cameo of 26 holed out to deep covers. Razzaq got caught at long off after a decent knock of 35 from 31 balls which included a six. Pakistan got bowled out in 47.2 overs for 239. The most successful Kiwi bowler was Scott Styris with 4-0-23-3. McCullum got the Man of the Match for a responsible century that held the innings for NZ.

The Kiwis in the first ODI had just the one penetrative bowler in Shane Bond Of course, Vettori too can be counted as a very good bowler but we have all seen that even he cannot stop the likes of Afridi, Kamran Akmal when they get going. Infact Afridi enjoyed batting against Shane Bond because of the extra pace that was allowing the ball to come onto the bat. In the second ODI, the Kiwis will be strengthened just a little bit by the return of Kyle Mills who should be complementing Bond with his swing bowling. Ian Butler or probably Nathan McCullum will have to make way for him. Pakistan on the other hand should make a change and somehow get Shoaib Malik in, its really hard to understand how they could keep such a proven talent on the bench.

Salman Butt could be the casualty after his duck in the first ODI. I would have kept him in the side because of his potential and rather drop Khalid Latif, who did score a fifty but was simply an unattractive one to say the least. For the Kiwis, its time for players like Brendon McCullum, Ross Taylor, Scott Styris and Jacob Oram to play to their potential. McCullum and Taylor should not feel shy of taking their time at the top of the order as they have the shots to cover up for any slow starts.

Younis Khan’s team won the first ODI by a thumping margin but if they want to be a professional world class unit then their fielding has got to improve. If I remember, a couple of easy catches were spilled down starting from a slip catch dropped by Salman Butt. On the positive side, there was a good running catch taken by substitute fielder Imran Farhat.

There is of course a lot of scope for improvement in the running between the wickets for Pakistan. ‘Drop and run’ is a common feature in today’s international cricket. What would have been a dot ball is converted into a short single by the smart early calls. The Pakistanis could do well by watching the tapes of the India-Australia Series in which top order batsmen of both the sides do exactly that.

One more dilemma for Pakistan is Mohammad Yousuf. The world knows what a classy batsman he is. The world knows what a lovely touch he has when he strikes the ball ever so effortlessly. But in the limited overs version, Yousuf can be a burden of sorts when it comes to running between the wickets and fielding! Yousuf is always in the potential danger of not only getting himself run out but also running out his partner. He is also a slow mover on the field and often the batsmen can steal runs out of him whenever they desire to. Younis Khan who is about the same age as Yousuf doesn’t have that problem, he is one of the better fielders in the Pakistan team and also a swift runner. Pakistan will have to carefully keep an eye on the future with the 2011 World Cup not that far away.

For this Abu Dhabi Series, I can safely say that Pakistan are difficult to beat as far as New Zealand are concerned. Pakistan will have to play very bad if the Kiwis have to win in any of the remaining two ODIs. However, the Kiwis do stand a good chance of beating the World T20 Champs in the two Twenty20 internationals in Dubai which should be an even contest.

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.