New Zealand settle after McCullum blow

Pallekele: Opening their attack with a pace-spin combination of Shoaib Akhtar and Abdur Rehman, Pakistan struck a crucial early blow when Shoaib's slower one castled Brendon McCullum after being hit for a six in a Group A encounter here on Tuesday.
Earlier, New Zealand skipper Daniel Vettori won the toss and had no hesitation whatsoever in batting first.

But what could hold key to this encounter is the 22-yard strip as it is the first one-day international to be played at the Pallekele International Stadium here in Kandy.
"Of course, it (unknown pitch) adds to the challenge because we don't know how the pitch will behave but that's the same for both teams and as far as we are concerned, we are up to the challenge," Pakistan vice captain Misbah-ul-Haq had said on Monday.
On the team front, Pakistan brought back Shoaib Akhtar after resting him against Canada; he replaced Wahab Riaz. Saeed Ajmal too was asked to sit out and his place was taken by Abdur Rehman.
New Zealand made a couple of changes as well from their last match, with all-rounder Jacob Oram taking the place of Hamish Bennett and Jamie How replacing Jesse Ryder, who is injured.
Squads:
New Zealand: B McCullum (wk), M Guptill, J How, R Taylor, J Franklin, S Styris, N McCullum, D Vettori (c), Kyle Mills, Tim Southee, Jacob Oram
Pakistan: Mohammad Hafeez, Ahmed Shehzad, Kamran Akmal (wk), Younis Khan, Misbah-ul-Haq, Umar Akmal, Shahid Afridi (c), Abdul Razzaq, Abdur Rehman, Umar Gul, Shoaib Akhtar

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