It was the 1689th ODI in cricket history. It was New Zealand's 371st and Pakistan's 485th match. It was the 53rd match between these two sides. The record now reads: Pakistan 32, New Zealand 19, tied one and abandoned one. It was the 25th match between these two sides in New Zealand. The record now reads: Pakistan 10, New Zealand 13, tied one and abandoned one. Umpires BF Bowden and AL Hill officiated in their 17th and sixth match respectively. Imran Farhat (left handed batsman from Lahore) became Pakistan's 135th player to makes his ODI debut. Waqar Younis played his 200th match. He became the 21st player overall and seventh Pakistani after Wasim Akram (312), Salim Malik (283), Ijaz Ahmed (250), Inzamam-ul-Haq (235), Javed Miandad (233) and Saeed Anwar (214) to do so.. Wasim Akram provided the third instance by a Pakistani to capture a wicket off the very first ball of the match when he had makeshift opener Adam Parore bowled. Akram had also dismissed Zimbabwe's Andy Flower caught by wicketkeeper Rashid Latif at Karachi on 24-12-1993. The first such instance for Pakistan had taken place at Sharjah on 22-03-1985 when Imran Khan had trapped India's Ravi Shastri leg before wicket. Akram became only the fourth bowler after West Indian Andy Roberts, Australia's Craig McDermott and New Zealand's Chris Cairns to get a wicket off the first ball of the match on two occasions. Parore's wicket was also the 50th for Akram against New Zealand. He became the second bowler after fellow countryman Waqar Younis to do so. Younis has 64 wickets against his name from 26 appearances against New Zealand. Shoaib Akhtar (5-19) achieved his best ever figures in ODIs. His previous best was 4 for 37 against England at Sharjah in 1998-99. Shoaib became 13th Pakistani (on 38th occasion) to capture five wickets in a match. His figures are jointly the second best for Pakistan in New Zealand after Waqar Younis' 6 for 30 at Auckland on 13-03-1994 and alongwith Wasim Akram's 5 for 19 at Wellington on 26-12-1992. Akhtar's figures are the best by any bowler on his first appearance on New Zealand soil. Surprisingly the previous record was held by West Indian Viv Richards who returned the figures of five for 41 at Dunedin on 18-03-1997. The previous record by a Pakistani on his first appearance against New Zealand in New Zealand was in the name of Sarfraz Nawaz who took 4 for 46 at Christchurch on 11-02-1973. Akhtar also performed the unusual feat of capturing all five wickets without any assistance from any of the team mates as he bowled four and got the fifth plumb in front of wickets thus getting umpire's approval to his uproarious LBW appeal. This was only the ninth instance of a bowler capturing a five wicket haul without any help from teammates. The details:
Bowler Mode of dismissals Teams Venue Date
RJ Hadlee(5-25) 2 bowled,2 lbw,1 c&b NZ v SL Bristol 13-06-1983
Arshad Ayub(5-21) 3 lbw,2 bowled Ind v Pak Dhaka 31-10-1988
Wasim Akram(5-38) 4 bowled,1 lbw Pak v WI Sharjah 14-10-1989
Waqar Younis(6-26)4 bowled,2 lbw Pak v SL Sharjah 29-04-1990
Waqar Younis(5-25)5 bowled Pak v SA Durban 09-02-1993
ACI Lock(5-44) 2 lbw,2 bowled,1 c&b Zim v NZ Napier 03-02-1996
AA Donald(6-23) 3 lbw,3 bowled SA v Ken Nairobi 03-10-1996
MA Ealham(5-15) 5 lbw Eng v Zim Kimberley 30-01-2000
Akhtar(5-19) 4 bowled,1 lbw Pak v NZ Auckland 18-02-2001
The sixth wicket partnership of 53 runs between Jacob Oram and Lou Vincent is New Zealand's best for this wicket against Pakistan in New Zealand. This obliterates the previous record stand of 45 between Mark Burgess and Ken Wadsworth at Christchurch on 11-02-1973. However New Zealand's highest for sixth wicket against Pakistan in all matches still remains as 65 between Jeremy Coney and Ian Smith at Multan on 07-12-1984. When he reached 3, Saeed Anwar became the leading run-scorer for Pakistan against New Zealand. At the end of this match Anwar has an aggregate of exactly 1100 runs from 26 outings. He went past Salim Malik who had 1054 runs from 43 matches. Just for the record, Australia's Mark Waugh holds the record of aggregating most runs in a career against New Zealand with 1340 runs from 35 matches. When he bowled Inzamam-ul-Haq, Chris Harris equalled Richard Hadlee's record tally of 158 wickets for New Zealand. However Harris took 59 matches more than Hadlee to equal his tally. Shoaib Akhtar won his third Man of the Match award in his 42nd match. 