Cricket: Aamir sees Pakistan home

New Zealand . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .242 and 110

Pakistan. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .215 and 141-5

Pakistan win by five wickets

A FINE innings of 78 by Aamir Sohail took Pakistan to victory over New Zealand by five wickets soon after lunch on the third day of the first Test at Eden Park.

Needing 138 to win, the winning runs coming from a massive pull drive for six over mid- on by Rashid Latif against the off-spinner Shane Thomson. It had been a poor pitch for a Test, although much of the batting was very ordinary.

A year or two ago one would have backed Euan Chatfield and Martin Snedden to have bowled New Zealand to victory in these conditions. Richard de Groen, who moves the ball away from the right-hander, was now the best of the bowlers.

In the final analysis, New Zealand were short of 50 runs and must blame themselves for not making more than 110 in their second innings. Without Martin Crowe, whose injured knee is in a bad way, the batting is most unconvincing.

Meanwhile, Sohail's driving, cutting and hooking kept the scoreboard moving before he gave Bryan Young his sixth catch, a New Zealand record, with only 19 runs needed.

(Third day: Pakistan won toss)

NEW ZEALAND - First innings 242 (A H Jones 66; Waqar Younis 4-46).

PAKISTAN - First Innings 215 (S B Doull 5-66).

NEW ZEALAND - Second innings 110 (Wasim Akram 6-43).

PAKISTAN - Second innings

(Overnight: 3 for 0)

Saeed Anwar c Young b De Groen. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Aamir Sohail c Young b Thomson. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .78 Asif Mujtaba c and b Doull. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0 * Salim Malik c Young b De Groen. . . . . . . . . . . . . .11 Basit Ali c and b Doull. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7 Inzamam-ul-Haq not out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20 Rashid Latif not out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13 Extras (lb3 nb2). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Total (for 5). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .141

Fall: 1-21 2-25 3-56 4-73 5-119.

Did not bat: Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis, Mushtaq Ahmed, Ata-ur-Rehman.

Bowling: Cairns 6-1-15-0; De Groen 13-3-48-2; Doull 16-0-48-2; Owens 2-0-10-0; Thomson 4-1- 17-1.

The left-arm spinner Venkatapathy Raju took 6 for 87 to give India their third successive win by an innings over Sri Lanka and a clean sweep in the three-match home Test series. Raju ended with career-best match figures of 11 for 125.

(Fourth day: Sri Lanka won toss)

SRI LANKA - First innings 119 (V Raju 5-38).

INDIA - First innings 358 (M Azharuddin 152, V G Kambli 57).

SRI LANKA - Second innings

(Thursday: 154 for 5)

R S Mahanama lbw b Raju. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 D Samaraweera run out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 H P Tillakaratne c Azharuddin b Raju. . . . . . . . .40 P A de Silva c Azharuddin b Chauhan. . . . . . . . . 14 * A Ranatunga c Sidhu b Raju. . . . . . . . . . . . .29 M Attapattu c Mongia b Chauhan. . . . . . . . . . . . 0 R S Kalpage c Azharuddin b Chauhan. . . . . . . . . . 9 P B Dassanayake not out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 D Anurasiri c Prabhakar b Raju. . . . . . . . . . . . 6 P Wickremasinghe c Prabhakar b Raju. . . . . . . . . .0 M Muralitharan c Mongia b Raju. . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Extras (b4 lb11 nb1). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16 Total (104.3 overs). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .222

Fall: 1-70 2-98 3-149 4-149 5-153 6-167 7-193 8-214 9-214.

Bowling: Prabhakar 5-2-11-0; Kapil 5-1-12-0; Raju 32.3-9-87-6; Kumble 28-9-45-0; Chauhan 30-14-45-3; Tendulkar 4-1-7-0.