Good things come to those who work hard

Reward at last for one of the hardest workers on India's tour of New Zealand, left-arm medium-fast bowler Zaheer Khan who will probably rate his batting in tonight's two-wicket win over the home side as one of the highlights of his career.

Khan, who was named man of the match for a superb nine-ball spell in his first and second overs, that removed Nathan Astle, Mathew Sinclair and Chris Harris and for his unbeaten innings, had the honour of hitting the winning runs in India's first victory of the tour.

He was 34 not out at the end, scored off 42 balls. His massive six off Daryl Tuffey in the 40th over was a vital blow in ensuring India would not falter at the last hurdle.

His 44-run eighth-wicket partnership with Yuvraj Singh ensured this first victory would be attained with time to spare.

Yuvraj was the key man in India's performance with the bat, scoring a lovely 54 off 85 balls before he was out nine runs short of victory, thanks to a literally face-saving catch by Chris Harris who somehow got his hands in front of his face to stop an absolute screamer of a shot and give New Zealand hope.

Khan, who finished New Zealand's innings of 168 with three for 30, said when he went out to join Yuvraj it was just his intention to stay with him because of the way he was playing.

"He played a brilliant knock. Then when Javagal [Srinath] came out he told me to keep going and pick up the singles and not to do anything silly.

"We are very happy, everyone is really enjoying this win. We have been trying really hard on the tour and we still feel we will come right.

"There are two one-dayers to go and we feel we will have a moral victory if we beat them in the next two games," he said.

Khan said there had been a lot of movement in the pitch initially and he had enjoyed it when New Zealand were asked to bat first.