31st February, Wellington - Allround performance by Grant Elliot helped New Zealand register a comfortable win against Pakistan in the first ODI here at Wellington.
Chasing a modest target of 211 for victory, New Zealand got off to an electrifying start by McCullum and Guptill notching up 30 runs in just 3 overs but Pakistan struck back picking up the wicket of McCullum, Latham and Guptil. After that, an unbeaten partnership of 112 runs between Ross Taylor & Elliott ensured a comfortable victory for the home team n 39.3 overs with seven wickets in hand.
Earlier New Zealand won the toss & elected to field first. Pakistan were bundled for 210 in 46th over. At one stage, even 200-run mark looked unlikely, but Shahid Afridi smashed 67 off 29 balls helped Pakistan to cross 200.
Full scorecard of the first ODI between New Zealand and Pakistan, please click here
Quotes
Grant Elliott (Man of the match): I am happy with the performance, pacers set the tone and I was lucky enough to snare few. We have great environment and boys are upbeat for the challenge and I am happy to involved in such a unit.
Brendon McCullum: It was a professional performance, our fielding was wonderful today. Ross and Elliott played well and got us over the line. It was a good performance from the boys and we will look to keep up the good work
Misbah ul Haq: Yeah we just lost wickets upfront and kept losing wickets till the end, we went nowhere in the first 10 overs. Pleased for Afridi though, he scored freely and looked in good nick. When you are defending such total, one needs to pick wickets regularly which we failed to do.
CRICKETNMORE