E-Paper
Styris leads Kiwis to four-wicket win
Scott Styris scored his second one-day international century to guide New Zealand to a four-wicket on Saturday over Pakistan in the first match.
Scott Styris scored his second one-day international century to guide New Zealand to a four-wicket Saturday over Pakistan in the first match of a five-match limited-overs cricket series.
Man-of-the-match Styris was 101 not out when New Zealand crept past Pakistan's total of 229-7 with five balls remaining.
The win seemed out of New Zealand's reach when it lost three middle-order wickets for 15 runs between the 37th and 40th overs of its 50-over innings.
But Styris, who came to the wicket with New Zealand at 35-2, kept a cool head to see the home side to its first win in six one-day matches against Pakistan.
He scored his century from 108 balls, with 10 fours and two sixes, and kept New Zealand in the match when its target run-rate had seemed out of reach.
New Zealand, with six wickets down, had needed 44 runs from the last five overs, 31 from the last 20 balls, 27 from 18 deliveries and finally 17 with two overs remaining.
Pakistan managed to take charge with aggressive late-order batting and tight full-pitched bowling.
It was only in the last two overs that Styris finally broke the visitors' grip on the match. Styris did not panic as New Zealand's required run rate crept to six, to seven and finally beyond eight runs an over.
He dominated the strike in an unbroken 74-run partnership with Brendon McCullum, hitting regular boundaries to keep New Zealand in sight of its winning total.
McCullum contributed only 13 to the partnership but he took regular singles to keep Styris on strike and he had the honor of hitting the winning runs: a two from the first ball of the final over.
Styris raced through the 90s, going from 93 to 99 with a six in the second-last over andris had taken 3-34 in the first part of an outstanding all-around performance, removing Saleem Elahi, Shoaib Malik and Inzamam-ul-Haq to leave Pakistan 120-6 in the 38th over.
He also took a catch to dismiss Yousuf Youhana.
Jacob Oram, who took 2-28 after bowling his 10 overs consecutively from the start of the innings, also helped contain the Pakistan batsman early.
Moin and Mahmood broke those constraints in a brilliant display of late-order batting. Wicketkeeper Moin hit eight fours and a six, reaching his half century from 58 balls, while Mahmood hit two fours and two sixes in an explosive display.
Mahmood and the right-arm off-spinner Malik then conspired to restrict New Zealand's scoring.
Mahmood took 1-35 from his 10 overs and Malik 2-28, taking the wickets of Craig McMillan and Chris Cairns.
Styris and McCullum came together at 156-6, with New Zealand needing 74 from exactly 10 overs and, although they dropped briefly behind the run-rate, they kept the chase alive.
