McMillan arrives as member of the ODI century club

Craig McMillan marked his arrival among the leading New Zealand batsmen in One-Day Internationals today in style - playing the sort of attacking innings that has previously been the domain of the Cairns family.

His 104 not out, off 75 balls, equalled Chris Cairns' New Zealand record as the fastest for New Zealand in ODIs.

But it also ensured New Zealand would go into Wednesday's series decider in Dunedin on level terms with Pakistan and with the confidence to know it can handle Pakistan if it can only get runs on the board.

That board is a key consideration, and just how important was hit home yesterday when the massive electronic scoreboard at the ground failed to work. The only way the players knew the score was from the television replay screen.

"It was weird without a scoreboard. At different times we didn't know what the score was. It was a bit unnerving," he said.

But even then Chris Harris, McMillan's partner during their unbroken 118-run sixth wicket stand, put him wrong and told him he had scored his century when he was still on 97.

As it was in the last over, and McMillan promptly lost the strike the scene was highly dramatic as a crowd of 6951 realised that he hadn't score the runs yet.

Pakistan off spinner Saqlain Mushtaq duly obliged however by bowling two no-balls, both of which were scored off and which helped McMillan get the strike back. He was left with the last ball to score two runs, a feat he achieved with a six.

"I knew he was going to bowl a fast one. I asked Harry [Harris] what I should do and he said, 'Hit it out of the park.'

"I've been batting up the order a little higher than what I am used to. At No 5 or 6 you don't get the chance to score hundreds usually and batting at No 4 does give you that opportunity," he said.

McMillan's maiden century has been a long time coming, but there was no doubting the manner of its arrival. Of all the New Zealand batsmen during the series he has been the one who has been consistently getting better.

"Getting my hundred was nice, but it was good it came with a win.

"It is nice to perform well as an individual but it is even better when you perform as a team," he said.

He had a quiet start to his innings coming in when New Zealand were 116/3 and in the next six overs only 23 runs were scored, which in terms of the innings was a significant reduction in the run rate.

Nathan Astle led the charge at that stage in his best innings of the series. He should have been given out caught at the wicket by Moin Khan standing up to Saqlain Mushtaq's bowling. A decisive appeal for a catch was turned down by umpire Tony Hill when Astle was on 67.

But in the 31st over, Astle was definitely out, caught behind off Abdur Razzaq's bowling for 71.

At that stage McMillan was on 32 from 32 balls. The pace slowed again as Lou Vincent attempted to get in before he was out leg before wicket for four. Only 14 runs were added in eight overs as Harris also attempted to get ready for an assault during the last 10 overs.

When McMillan hit a boundary from the last ball of the 40th over, it was the first boundary in 69 balls.

From that point, however, the accelerator went down in outstanding fashion. He hit a six off Wasim Akram and reached his 50 off 50 balls, and then a few balls later the 50 partnership with Harris was reached off 63 balls. At the end of the 45th over, the score was 222/6.

Four were taken off the 46th over, and then began a superb four over blitzkreig which yielded 57 runs.

Sixteen came from the 47th bowled by Wasim, 10 from the 48th bowled by Saqlain Mushtaq, eight from the 49th and then 24 from the last which was an extraordinary over in more ways than one.

McMillan hit the first two balls for six, sweetly timed shots both of them and then a leg bye was run off the third. At that stage the 100 partnership was reached off 91 balls.

Their completed partnership achieved 112 off 97 balls. It was easily the best sixth wicket partnership by New Zealand against Pakistan, passing the total of 65 scored by Jeremy Coney and Ian Smith at Multan in 1984/85.

McMillan passed Bruce Edgar and Jeremy Coney on the all-time New Zealand ODI scoring list and is in 12th place with 1892 runs.