New Zealand wallops Pakistan at Cricket World Cup

New Zealand batsman Ross Taylor takes a solid swing at Pallekele Cricket Stadium in Kandy, Sri Lanka, on Tuesday

Ross Taylor celebrated his 27th birthday with a sparkling unbeaten 131 on Tuesday as New Zealand crushed hapless Pakistan by 110 runs in a Cricket World Cup Group A match in Kandy, Sri Lanka.
Taylor hit seven towering sixes and eight fours in his 124-ball knock to propel New Zealand to 302-7 after 100 was smashed off the last five overs of their innings. After Pakistan's feeble attempts in the field, the New Zealanders then gave a masterclass in athletic fielding to a large Sri Lankan crowd.
"I had a bit of luck early on," Taylor said. "Even when I was on 30-40 I still struggled, but I think the way Nathan [McCullum] came in and Jac [Jacob Oram] came in, I just backed myself and had a few cameos in the middle."
Fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar twice found the edge of Taylor's bat early in his innings but wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal stood still for the first one and then floored a regulation catch.
New Zealand pacemen Tim Southee (3-25) and Kyle Mills (2-43) rolled over Pakistan's top order and the 1992 champions were bowled out for 192 in 41.4 overs at the Pallekele International Cricket Ground. At one stage, Pakistan was 66-6 before the lower middle order gave the score some respectability.
New Zealand takes on Canada in the next group game on March 13 while Pakistan plays Zimbabwe at Pallekele on March 14.
New Zealand and Pakistan both have six points after playing four matches each, but for the Kiwis it was sweet revenge for their 3-2 one-day series loss to Pakistan at home last month.
Taylor set off his own birthday fireworks to surpass his previous best of an unbeaten 128 made against India in 2006.
Akmal's weaknesses behind the wickets were once again shown up as he completely ignored a simple chance and the ball went past him for a boundary before Taylor scored and then fumbled a sitter.
"I don't have any excuse," Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi said. "We didn't bowl well, we didn't field well and we missed opportunities.
"I think fielding is the area where you can easily win a lot of games."
After starting slowly, Taylor sped up with Jacob Oram (25) in a whirlwind seventh wicket stand of 85 off a mere 22 deliveries.
New Zealand's batsmen struggled to score freely after captain Daniel Vettori won the toss and opted to bat first at a venue which became the 178th venue to host one-day internationals. Vettori injured his knee while fielding and had to be helped from the field. The extent of his injury was not immediately known.
Akhtar knocked back Brendon McCullum's off stump with a superb fourth delivery that swung back into the right-hander.
Martin Guptill made a fighting 57 but struggled after Afridi deployed leftarm spinner Abdur Rehman with the new ball.
It was the first time in 13 years that Pakistan had opened with a spinner in a one-day international.
Jamie How struggled for 29 balls before Umar Gul had him trapped lbw and Guptill fell to Afridi's full delivery soon after completing his half century.
Taylor, who completed his half century off 78 balls, needed half that number of balls to complete his fourth one-day international century, the first since October 2008, when he made 103 against Bangladesh.
He smacked Akhtar for three sixes, with one going out of the ground at midwicket. The New Zealand batsmen took 30 runs off Abdul Razzaq's 49th over.
Fast bowler Gul, with 3-32, bowled two incisive spells of swing bowling before Taylor cut loose as New Zealand added a staggering 100 runs in the last five overs.
Pakistan's run chase never achieved any momentum and New Zealand hardly missed Vettori.
Southee and Mills combined well to pick up five wickets while Jacob Oram made it 66-6 when Afridi was clean bowled.
Allrounder Abdul Razzaq fought a grim battle by top scoring with 62 off 74 balls. He also became the fourth player after Sri Lanka's Sanath Jayasuriya, South African Jacques Kallis and his captain Afridi to score over 5,000 runs and have over 250 wickets in one-day internationals.
Razzaq put on 66 runs for Pakistan's best partnership of the innings with Gul (34) before Scott Styris had him caught in the deep and the medium pacer wrapped up the innings when McCullum held onto a skier at long on.