Pakistan, their all-win record almost certain now (they play Bangladesh in the last match), go into the Super Six with the huge advantage of having pocketed four points from the other two qualifiers from this Group B. Thus Pakistan would need to win just one or a maximum of two matches in the Super Six to make certain their place in the semifinals.

Today it was the tested batting of Inzamam-ul Haq that put Pakistan in an impregnable position. Egged on by a noisy and highly partisan crowd that easily drowned the cheering of the Kiwis supporters, Inzamam batted with supreme confidence to bludgeon thebowling.

Pakistan were in a spot of bother early on as accurate bowling and brilliant fielding kept their run rate down. But once Inzamam got going the flow of runs drained the fight out of the New Zealanders.

Inzamam, the man Imran Khan described as the best player of fast bowling, is also identified as the worst runner between the wickets by the Pakistani hero. Today he ran out Ijaz Ahmed to show that he continues to be so.To compound the problems for Kiwis, they were taking on arguably the best new ball bowling attack in the world. While skipper Wasim Akram probed the openers with his late swing and pace, Shoaib Akhtar spread panic in the rival ranks. Two early wickets blew the Kiwi hopes. It also exposed Craig McMillan's inadequacies against the short rising delivery. The batsman, who had been given a severe knock on his head by Windies paceman Reon King in the previous match, was clearly shy of the short-pitched wares of Akram and Akhtar. With a clutch of wickets tumbling, New Zealand's only hope layin running up a decent total in the 50 overs and boosting their net run rate. Fleming and Chris Harris tried their best to drag the innings along and do some damage control on the Net Run Rate.

Their chances of making the Super Six will now depends on the other two Group B matches. If West Indies win, they, along with New Zealand and South Africa, would be through. But if Australia win, and New Zealand down Scotland, the Net Run Rate would determine the two (among NZ, WI, Australia) to go through along with Pakistan.

Scoreboard: Pakistan vs New Zealand

Pakistan:

Saeed Anwar b Allott 28 25 4/0
Shahid Afridi c Parore b Allott 17 22 2/1
Abdur Razzaq run out (Astle) 33 82 4/0
Ijaz Ahmed run out (Harris) 51 68 0/0
Inzamam-ul-Haq not out 73 61 7/0
Salim Malik b Allott 8 9 1/0
Moin Khan c McMillan b Astle 19 17 3/0
Wasim Akram lbw b Cairns 1 7 0/0
Azhar Mahmood c Twose b Allott 14 12 2/0
Saqlain Mushtaq not out 0 00/0
Extras (b4, lb10, w8, nb3): 25.
Total (for 8 wickets, 50 overs): 269
Fall of wickets: 1-40 (Shahid Afridi, 5.3 overs), 2-51 (Saeed Anwar, 9.5), 3-127 (Abdur Razzaq, 28.3), 4-163 (Ijaz Ahmed, 36.2), 5-180 (Saleem Malik, 38.5), 6-221 (Moin Khan, 43.4), 7-226 (Wasim Akram, 45.2), 8-255 (Azhar Mahmood, 48.6)
Bowling: Nash 10-1-36-0 (nb 1), Allott 10-0-64-4 (nb 2, w 5), Larsen 10-0-35-0, Cairns 7-0-46-1 (w 1), Harris 8-0-47-0 (w 1), Astle 5-0-27-1 (w 1)

New Zealand:

Mattew Horne c Moin b Akhtar 1 20 0/0
Nathan Astle c Moin b Akhtar 0 6 0/0
Craig McMillan c Malik b Akram 20 25 3/0
Stephen Fleming c Akram b Mahmood 69 100 4/0
Roger Twose c Haq b Saqlain 13 25 0/1
Chris Cairns lbw b Mahmood 0 4 0/0
Adam Parore lbw bMahmood 0 1 0/0
Chris Harris c Razzaq b Saqlain 45 96 0/0
Dion Nash not out 21 32 0/0
Gavin Larsen not out 3 4 0/0
Extras (lb 12, w 13, nb 10): 35
Total (for 8 wickets in 50 overs):207
Fall of wickets: 1-2 (Astle, 1.5 overs), 2-12 (Horne, 5.1), 3-35 (McMillan, 10.4), 4-70 (Twose, 18.4), 5-71 (Cairns, 19.4), 6-71 (Parore, 19.5), 7-154 (Fleming, 38.5), 8-200 (Harris, 48.6)
Bowling: Akram 9-0-28-1 (nb 5, w 2), Akhtar 7-1-31-2 (nb 4, w 1), Mahmood 10-0-38-3 (w 2), Saqlain 10-1-37-2 (nb 1, w 1), Afridi 6-1-27-0 (nb 2, w 1), Razzaq 8-0-36-0 (w 2)

Result: Pakistan won by 62 runs.