NZ win despite stunning turnaround

Monday night's Cool & cool Cup ODI series- decider proved a full-length 50-over match can conjure up those twists and turns in the plot like no other format can. Batting first, New Zealand's Brendon McCullum, who scored a brilliant hundred on Friday, stood out once again with an aggressive 78-ball 76 which included three sixes and six fours. New Zealand were well on course for a big score but once McCullum got out, caught and bowled by Shoaib Malik, the Pakistani spinners led by Ajmal sparked a middle-order collapse to take last seven wickets for 47 runs. New Zealand had raced to 72 by the 12th over, with McCullum reaching his fifty off just 47 balls.

It was paceman Umar Gul who provided the breakthrough, removing opener Aaron Redmond caught off Aamir for 21. This was Gul's 100th wicket in 67 one-day internationals. With NZ all out for 211, the target seemed easy enough for Pakistan to chase. That's when the real twists began, and how. Pakistan's top and middle order crumbled swiftly to leave the side teetering at 101/9, leading everyone - probably even the teams themselves - to believe the match was a cinch-win for the Kiwis, with an already sparse crowd of mostly Pakistan supporters starting to empty the stadium. And then the plot twisted yet again. With only two wickets left in hand, Pakistan needed 126 runs from 26.5 overs. Then Mohammad Aamer came out to bat at number 10, and mastered a comeback that almost changed the course of the game. Almost, A scintillating performance by the 17-year old Aamer, belting out a brilliant and unbeaten 73 off 81 balls (including seven 4s and three 6s), and sharing a 103-run partnership with Saeed Ajmal, brought about a dramatic spin to the game that had everyone riveted with renewed attention, piling up just between them, half the runs in Pakistan's entire score. Remarkably shortening the gap to bring up the score to a nailbiting 204, Aamer made his maiden ODI 50, also notching up the highest score by a number 10 batsman in World one-dayers.

Unfortunately for Pakistan, it was close, but not close enough. After effortlessly knocking the Kiwi bowlers all around the Sheikh Zayed stadium much to the visibile frustration of skipper Daniel Vettori who conceded a hattrick of sixes to the cool cat Aamer, the two Pakistani tailenders' heroics succumbed to a last burst of intensity from NZ, losing their last wicket Ajmal (33), to Kyle Mills (b Jacob Oram). What Aamer's effort also did, though, was highlight the failure of his more capable team-mates. Pakistan crashed and burned from 47 for 0 to 101 for 9 with batsmen playing rash shots that betrayed a nervous and muddled mindset. No one took ownership of the chase and New Zealand kept gaining ground with disciplined bowling.Coming only 8 runs short of their target in the last over, Pakistan fell to the resolute Kiwis, conceding the match and series to New Zealand, 2-1. Pakistan won the first match by 138 runs on Tuesday before New Zealand levelled the series with a 64-run win on Friday. Continuing in the Cool & Cool Cup series, the teams now move to Dubai where they play two Twenty20 matches on November 12 and 13.