Pak-NZ to fight for series lead in 4th ODI

Pak-NZ to fight for series lead in 4th ODI
NAPIER: New Zealand have stacked their batting lineup and will play just two pace bowlers in Tuesday's fourth ODI against Pakistan in Napier.

A team spokesman confirmed Jacob Oram would be 12th man, joining the already omitted trio James Franklin, Kyle Mills and Luke Woodcock on the sidelines.

Jamie How and Kane Williamson will both slot in to a lineup, which includes seven specialist batsmen. Jesse Ryder and Martin Guptill are expected to resume their opening partnership, which put on 84 in game one in Wellington.

It leaves Hamish Bennett and Tim Southee as the two quicks, with Vettori and Nathan McCullum both returning as the spin attack.

Vettori was confident the team had enough bowling to counter the in-form Pakistani batsmen who racked up 293-7 in their 43-run win in Christchurch. Captain Shahid Afridi will again be the dangerman after he cracked 65 off 25 balls on Saturday to help level the six-match series 1-1.

Pakistan won the last match with opener Mohammad Hafeez doing a fine job with his maiden ODI century. Even so, New Zealand seemed to have a reasonable hold on the game until the last 10 overs.

At that point, captain Shahid Afridi, with little Umar Akmal as his lieutenant, who went all guns blazing and took the game to the opponents.

The pair was largely responsible for the carnage that followed as Pakistan carved 126 off the final 10 overs to push the total to 293 for seven.

So the Kiwis would be on their toes in the next ODI to stop the visitors from running away with the game like they did in the third ODI.