Taylor blitz flattens shoddy Pakistan

	Ross Taylor hurt Pakistan with an explosive hundred after they let him off twice © AFP Enlarge
Related Links Features : Good Ross, bad Ross Analysis : How Taylor destroyed Pakistan News : Vettori hurts right knee during New Zealand win Matches: New Zealand v Pakistan at Pallekele Series/Tournaments: ICC Cricket World Cup Teams: New Zealand | Pakistan

The fans who travelled through the hills to watch the first one-day international in Pallekele witnessed a Pakistan team in shambles: they saw a glut of extras, three dropped catches, the worst possible display of end-over bowling and a batting implosion from a shell-shocked team. They also saw a struggling New Zealand side take advantage of their opponent's extraordinary failings, slowly at first, before Ross Taylor launched an assault so brutal that Pakistan were gutted and rendered defenseless by the end of the innings.

Stronger opponents would have made Pakistan regret their shoddy performance - in which Kamran Akmal played the lead and Shoaib Akhtar a supporting role - sooner in the piece, but New Zealand's batsmen did not until the end. Then, though, they did so without mercy. Martin Guptill was their solitary performer in the first half of the innings, and Taylor needed massive slices luck to get going. But in the last six overs Taylor broke free with unprecedented violence, taking 28 off a Shoaib over before plundering 30 - a new tournament record - off one from Abdul Razzaq. It began to rain sixes and fours and Pakistan's helplessness was startling as New Zealand plundered 114 off the last six overs to reach 302.

Pakistan's batsmen were still swooning from Taylor's rope-a-dope when they began their chase and the inevitable collapse came to pass. The contest had ended before the mandatory Powerplay was over and, after the innings had been reduced to 23 for 4 and 66 for 6, Abdul Razzaq merely delayed the inevitable with a half-century. The only worry for New Zealand was the fitness of their captain - Daniel Vettori hobbled painfully off the field after injuring his knee in the sixth over and did not return. Taylor, who took over the captaincy, however, had ensured that Vettori's bowling wasn't needed on the day.

New Zealand's formidable total didn't take shape until very late though. When Pakistan's spinners dismissed Guptill and James Franklin to reduce the innings from 112 for 2 to 113 for 4, New Zealand were slipping. When Scott Styris, who was dropped by Kamran Akmal, was trapped by an Umar Gul yorker in the first batting-Powerplay over they were only 175 for 5, in sight of a middling total. That changed in a blink.

In the 47th over, Shoaib bowled wide deliveries, length deliveries and full tosses that Taylor savaged through cover point and over the deep-midwicket boundary. That exhibition of how not to bowl at the death was outdone by Razzaq, whose medium-pace at poor length was meat and drink for a marauding Taylor. Fielders looked on helplessly, Shahid Afridi tore his hair out metaphorically and Taylor continued to batter a ragged Pakistan. He had added 35 in 3.5 overs with Nathan McCullum, who initiated the acceleration, and then 85 in 3.4 overs with Jacob Oram, who muscled 25 off 9 balls.

Before the massacre was The Comedy of Errors. The litany began off the first ball of the innings, when Shoaib overstepped and umpire Nigel Llong didn't spot it. Llong called Shoaib's next three foot-faults, though, and the New Zealand batsmen sent all tho