New Zealand played two very contrasting innings in the span of one match and it was their undoing in the first half of the virtual final of the Pakistan New Zealand series in Abu Dhabi, dubbed the Cool and Cool series.
brendon mccullum3
Pakistan captain, Younis Khan, was in a fix. There was little that could stop Brendon McCullum from repeating his feats from the previous match. Going hammer and tongs, New Zealand made the perfect start after New Zealand captain, Daniel Vettori, won the toss and elected to bat first.
Pakistan did not stand a chance as McCullum sent pulses racing, and perhaps his second plausible century in the series looked to be coming faster than it did in the second ODI. But just when he was hurtling through on seventy-six, his innings was brought to a dead halt by a caught and bowled by Shoaib Mallik, who has not even been bowling that regularly.
The rest of the script was all Pakistan. Ross Taylor beat two previous ducks with a valiant forty-four but his wicket to Saeed Ajmal was just one of four wickets that the spinner went onto to pick as the New Zealand's ambitions were derailed and trailed thereafter to be bowled out for 211. A stunning start was met by a more stunning collapse, one that perhaps even New Zealand have no answer for and one that they will find hard to shake off to beat Pakistan to win the series.
Need time to recover from this one, the break should hopefully help ease the fresh wounds.
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