Birthday boy Ross Taylor smashed a whirlwind unbeaten century to set up an emphatic 110-run win for New Zealand against Pakistan in their Group A match.
Taylor, who turned 27th yesterday, cracked a breath-taking 131 runs off 124 balls to take New Zealand to a challenging 302 for seven after surviving two chances early in his innings at Pallekele stadium here.
Taylor hit eight fours and seven massive sixes in his innings and in the company of Jacob Oram piled up a mammoth 114 runs in the final six overs after skipper Daniel Vettori won the toss and elected to bat.
Fast bowlers Tim Southee and Kyle Mills then ran through the Pakistan batting lineup, reducing the Asian Gaints to 45 for five in 14.4 overs, before dismissing them for 192 with 8.2 overs to spare to reach top of the Group A table.
Chasing 303 to win, Pakistan had a disastrous start when Southee trapped Mohammad Hafeez (5) in front of wicket in the second over. Mills then repeated the treatment to Ahmed Shehzad (10) as Pakistan slipped to 23-2 in 6.1 overs.
Mills soon sent Younis Khan’s (0) offstump for a walk, while Southee induced an edge off Kamran Akmal (8) to further break their back. After few overs, Misbah-ul-Haq (7) became a victim of Southee as Pakistan were looking down the barrel at 45-5 in the 15th over.
Skipper Shahid Afridi (17) then wielded his willow for a couple of fours and a six before falling prey to Jacob Oram in the 18th over.
Umar Akmal then hit a 58-ball 38 with the help of three fours and added 36 runs with Abdul Razzaq before holing out to Oram at deep midwicket off Nathan McCullum.
Razzaq fought hard for his 74-ball 62 and became only the fourth all-rounder in world cricket to score 5000 runs, beside taking 250 runs in one-day Internationals.
He and Umar Gul (34 not out) provided some late entertainment, adding 66 runs off 51 balls for the ninth wicket but it was too little too late in the end.
Earlier, Taylor made Pakistan pay heavily for dropping him on zero. Adopting a cautious approach in the beginning, Taylor, who survived two chances, exploded in the final stages of the innings and remained unbeaten on 131 runs that came off just 124 balls.
Utilising most of the opportunity, he showed scant respect to the Pakistani bowlers and struck as many as eight fours and seven sixes during his fiery innings.
India vs Indian cricket team is romping home with some bad plays in the middle order. The team has played badly in this game with both bat and ball and has wasted many opportunities to score runs as well as take wickets. India is the only team in group B, have not lost a game.