Pakistan pull off a close victory over New Zealand
In the second match of Group D, New Zealand faced Pakistan in what turned out to be a rather close match but in the end Pakistan pulled it off with some super bowling towards the depth. Having elected to bat first after winning the toss Pakistan did manage to see the powerplay off without any major scare after Imran Nazir got out. Jamshed and Hafeez then went on to build a good partnership and Pakistan well over a 100 runs on board when they lost their second wicket. The Kiwis came back well after picking up wickets at regular intervals but that did not stop Pakistan to get to a total of 177 for the loss of six wickets.
New Zealand was up for some daunting task when Brendon McCullum was kept on the bench and Kane Williamson and Rob Nicole were sent to open the batting. The Kiwis made a rather slow start and that cost them big time because once the first wicket went down they did not really look to get back into the game. Brendon McCullum too could not do much with the bat as was expected from him after the last match. Ross Taylor and Jacob Oram did look to set things back for the black caps but chasing against a quality Pakistan bowling attack was always difficult. The second last over did bring some hope for New Zealand when Ross Taylor hit 3 boundaries from the first 3 balls but then got out trying to steal a second runs which was never there. It was all over after that and with 18 runs left in the last over it was just a formality for Pakistan to end the game.