Hafeez century sets good pakistan total

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HAFEEZ CENTURY SETS GOOD PAKISTAN TOTAL

Mohammad Hafeez's maiden century and Shahid Afridi's breezy half-century helped Pakistan set a victory target of 294 for New Zealand in the third one-day international at Christchurch.

Opening batsman Hafeez hit 115 off 144 balls before Afridi (65 off 25 balls) and Umar Akmal (44 off 29 balls) took Pakistan to 293 for seven in 50 overs.

Afridi hit five sixes and five boundaries and Akmal's innings was studded with four boundaries and two sixes as the pair added 69 runs in just 26 balls.

Kyle Mills, Tim Southee and Hamish Bennett took two wickets apiece and kept Pakistan in check, but the late flourish saw the visitors add 127 runs in the last 10 overs.

New Zealand made a strong start after deciding to bowl as the visitors' top order failed to negate the early help available to the seamers.

Southee picked up two wickets in his first spell with Ahmed Shehzad (0) and Kamran Akmal (six) gone with almost nothing on the Pakistan score card.

Hafeez and Younis Khan joined together at eight for two and tried to dig in.

Hafeez attempted a counter-attack by pulling Southee for back-to-back boundaries and lofted Bennett over long-on for a six soon after.

Younis, who had been playing second fiddle to Hafeez, scored his first boundary in Bennett's third over as Pakistan moved past 50-run mark in 12 overs.

A bowling change did the trick for the home team as Younis (12) ran out of patience and an attempted loft off Jacob Oram was held at mid-on by Kyle Mills to leave Pakistan on 56 for three.

Misbah-ul-Haq joined Hafeez, who soon brought up his eighth half-century by pushing Oram to third man after being dropped two balls earlier by wicketkeeper Brendon McCullum.

The fourth-wicket stand took Pakistan past 100 by 26 overs but Misbah looked scratchy as opposed to a confident Hafeez.

Misbah struggled against Luke Woodcock and was handed a reprieve when McCullum missed an easy stumping off the debutant left-arm spinner when he was on eight.

The Pakistan Test captain, however, managed to hang about and gave good support to Hafeez as the partnership took the visiting team past 150.

Misbah attempted to pull Woodcock to the square-leg boundary, and appeared set for a bigger innings when a similar attempt against Mills did him in.

Misbah (35 off 64 balls) attempted a lofted drive only to hole out to mid-off Scott Styris, but importantly for Pakistan the fourth-wicket stand had added a handy 94 in 22.2 overs.

New batsman Umar got off in style with a huge six over midwicket off Mills and followed it up with back-to-back boundaries off Woodcock's final over.

Hafeez brought up his maiden century with a cut to deep point in the same over and Pakistan opted for their batting power play in a bid to step up the scoring.

The fifth-wicket pair collected a couple of boundaries and a six in the first two power-play overs, but free-stroking Hafeez, who hit 12 boundaries and two sixes, perished while trying to whack Mills over mid-on.

But the duo had added 52 off 45 balls and took the team past 200 in 43rd over and set the stage for Afridi, who moved to his 31st fifty in just 19 balls and equalled McCullum's record of fastest 50 scored in a ODI in New Zealand.

But Umar fell soon after trying to paddle Bennett's full-length delivery only to see his stumps dislodged.

After a trio of boundaries in Mills' next over Afridi departed while trying to pull Bennett, with McCullum holding on to an inside edge.

Abdul Razak and Wahab Riaz finished the innings unbeaten on five and one respectively.

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