Date-stamped : 13 Jan96 - 14:38 ODI # 1021 New Zealand v Pakistan, 2nd One-day International Lancaster Park, Christchurch. 17 December 1995. New Zealand beat Pakistan in nail-biting finish - Qamar Ahmed The second one-day turned out to be a cliff-hanger. New Zealand chasing a formidable target of 233 to win in 50 overs reached the target on the last ball of the day to beat Pakistan by one wicket and avenged their defeat suffered at Carisbrook. The match could have even ended in a tie had Wasim Akram not bowled the last ball of the day outside the off stump which Gavin Larsen steered towards boundary through the third man region. In fact it was the last over of the day which snatched the victo- ry away from Pakistan. Nine runs were needed for a tie and ten for a win. The Pakistan captain would have been the last man to have allowed that to happen after nine wickets had already fallen and he had the ball all to himself to bowl New Zealand out or to contain them. Neither happened. The last man Danny Morrison picked up a leg-bye on the first ball. The next, a no-ball, was edged by Gavin Larsen past the keeper for two which was followed by a scorching drive through the covers for four. On the fourth delivery he survived a leg be- fore appeal, the fifth did not produce any run, the sixth yielded another two runs off a no-ball to tie the game and the sixth was promptly sent to the ropes. Astonishingly it was the worst over that Wasim Akram bowled on this tour which let New Zealand off the hook. The last-over drama was preceded by an eventful over by Waqar Younis who is four balls had taken three wickets in his last over to bring Pakistan near to an exciting win. On his second delivery of his tenth and last over, he had Lee Germon caught at covers by Basit Ali for 5. On the fourth Dipak Patel was taken at deep point by Ijaz Ahmed without scoring and on the fifth ball he had Roger Twose caught at mid-off by Mushtaq Ahmed for 10. New Zealand after being 220 for 6 in the 49th over had slumped to 221 for 9. But the last over of the day changed all that. New Zealand`s victory bid was earlier aided by two very produc- tive partnerships for the third and fifth wickets which yielded 77 and 97 runs respectively. After Aqib Javed had both Craig Spearman and Nathan Astle caught at the wicket by Rashid Latif with only 21 runs scored. Stephen Fleming and Bryan Young and taken the score to 98 before Fleming was the third man out having made 48 with five fours. Sweeping Aamir Sohail he was bowled round his legs. Two overs later Young also left when Wasim Akram at cover took a well- judged catch off the same bowler when 34. Adam Parore was then dropped at 16 by Basit Ali when he pulled Aamir Sohail to mid-wicket. New Zealand were then 133 for 4 in the 334th over. he and Chris Cairns batted steadily for 23 overs without hitting a single four to establish their match-winning stand of 97 for the fifth wicket. Wasim Akram dismissed them both but not before Parore had made 45 and Cairns 54. Victory for Pakistan seemed assured when Waqar Younis struck tak- ing three wickets in one over. But in the end it was all in vain. Pakistan earlier on had decided to bat after winning the toss and had lost Aamir Sohail and Ramiz Raja both with 27 runs on the board. Sohail was caught at short cover by Spearman for 10 and Ramiz Raja provided Danny Morrison with his 100th wicket in the one-day internationals. Ijaz Ahmed missed a full toss from Cairns to be leg before for 14. But Inzamam-ul-Haq and Salim Malik batted sensibly to put on 114 runs for the fourth wicket. The Man of the Match Inzamam was bowled through his legs for a superb 80. He had hit six fours and a six off Larsen. Malik made 58 which was his first score of over fifty on the tour, faced 82 balls and appeared in great form before falling to Twose. Wasim Akram was yorked by Morrison for 10 in the 46th over and later Morrison had Rashid Latif, Waqar Younis and Basit Ali in one over to finish with 5 for 46, his best bowling in one-day matches. In his last spell he had four wickets in three overs for 18 runs. Source :: Dawn Wire Service Contributed by The Management (help@cricinfo.com)