New Zealand vs Pakistan, Match 33 - Live Cricket Score, Commentary

And that, ladies and gents, is a wrap for today. Pakistan continues to thrill us with their mercurial style of cricket. As Nasser Hussain would say: One moment down, one moment up - Pakistan's cricket in a nutshell. Their win today stirs a snakes-and-ladders kinda shake up in the points table and remember, their next two games are against Afghanistan and Bangladesh. Good luck other teams and good luck England. The only undefeated team in the tournament - India - will be in action tomorrow, against the Caribbean boys. It's at Old Trafford in Manchester. We shall be up and early to feed you all the latest from the ground. Same time, same place. You know the drill. Until next time, this is Raju Peethala wishing you good night on behalf the entire crew: MS Ramakrishnan, Vineeth Anantharaman, Hariprasad Sadanandan, Rishi R Roy, Abhinand Raghavendran and the sharp-eyed scoring duo Shashikant Singh and Vinod LC.

Pakistan's 12th man had a role to play? Indeed. It has to be said, the crowd have been absolutely fantastic today. Their energy levels never dropped one decibel irrespective of the situation, and they kept roaring for every single run Pakistan ticked during the chase. Still remember my colleague - MS Ramki - asking me if this was louder than the India-Pakistan game? And without trying to overcook anything, it actually felt like cacophonous. That unmatched passion just stirred Pakistan right from the word go and they never looked back since. Even the legendary Graeme Swann, on BBC comms, drew parallels (about the crowd support) with the eternal 2005 Ashes campaign and I'm sure, he isn't the only one who felt that way.

Sarfaraz Ahmed | Pakistan captain: Definitely crowd always supports Pakistan team. Thank you for all the support. Fielding is important, but we didn't field well until today and we worked hard in our practice sessions. Good to see the results today. Whenever Pakistan team is pushed to the corner, we do well. It's a great team effort, Firstly the bowlers. The way Amir started and then Shaheen... Shadab in the middle overs and the way Babar and Haris batted.. To me Babar played one of the best innings I have seen. It's a tricky pitch, we wanted to bat fifty overs. Credit to Haris as well for the way he handled pressure. It was not easy to face the off-spinner. We are not thinking about the 1992 World Cup, we are taking game by game here. We are confident as a team and hopefully we will do well.

Kane Williamson | New Zealand captain: We have seen in the last three games that the surfaces have been assistive to bowling and they have been mighty close games. We were outplayed on a tough surface by a great Pakistan side today. I think there was a little more bounce than we experienced on the same surface the other day. Pakistan put the ball in the right areas, and made life difficult for us. The fight that we gave in the middle was excellent, thanks to Neesham and de Grandhomme, to post a competitive total. We were right in it after taking early wickets, but the partnership between Babar and Haris was absolutely fantastic. The ball from Shadab (to me) was nice wasn't it? There were some tough periods, and we tried getting to 230-ish, and hoped the pitch to remain consistent with what we saw in the first half, but Pakistan batted beautifully to see our bowling off despite the early wickets. The pitch was turning square, and Santner was fantastic. He is a world-class performer, but despite some really good bowling he went wicketless - and we know that can happen sometimes. We have to get over it. We aren't expecting to win them all in a format like round-robin because there are simply too many games, but there were glimpses of some great cricket today. We have to adapt a little better than we did today at a different venue against a different opposition up next.

Most wins vs NZ in World Cups:
7 Australia/ Pakistan
6 Sri Lanka
No other side has beaten them more than thrice.

Babar Azam | Man of the Match: I think this is the best (knock of mine in ODIs), because it was a must-win game. Track was a bit slow and also spinning a bit. Idea was always to bat till the end and it worked. When we started, the idea was to play out the fast bowlers, especially Ferguson. But when Santner came and got the ball to rip, we understood that it's important to keep him off. Idea was to just be careful against him. Hafeez Bhai told me the same, to gauge the pitch and play sensibly. Whenever we play in England, we get good support and I am glad it's continuing. (translated from Urdu)

19:29 Local Time, 18:29 GMT, 23:59 IST: A must win game for Pakistan and that too in a run-chase. Surely not many expected them to cruise home. Not after their openers threw it away and exposed the middle order inside 15 overs. On a pitch that resembled a minefield (well, nearly) Babar Azam walked in and displayed nerves of steel to grind it out and stay till the end of run chase. There were plenty of ooh-and-aah moments during the chase, but Babar's focus never drifted away and he along with the in-form Haris Sohail engineered a 100-plus partnership to seal the deal in front of a packed Edgbaston crowd. New Zealand weren't as sharp with the ball and unfortunately for them, their worst bowling performance coincided with Pakistan's best batting effort in this World Cup. All in all, this game will be remembered for the terrific performances of the young duo Babar Azam and Shaheen Afridi who showed plenty of character in a must-win game for their nation. And that's, exactly, how you churn superstars...

Ferguson to Sarfaraz, FOUR, a high full toss has been massaged through cover-point and that's that! Pakistan hang on, and they hand New Zealand their first defeat of the tournament. Oh, England look away. This win just opens up a lot of probabilities and tournament is wide open for now. As soon as Sarfaraz hit this, he had composed, determined look on his face and he quickly locks Babar Azam in his arms. Keeps tapping him on his shoulder and that should tell you what this victory means for him and Pakistan

Ross Taylor, Williamson and Ferguson involved in a conflab. Not sure what it is all about...

Matt Henry to Babar Azam, no run, sigh! No get away and they want to take it to the last over. Babar Azam tucks the length ball to mid-wicket, no dice

Matt Henry to Sarfaraz, 1 run, scores level! Sarfaraz drops this with soft hands on the leg-side and there's no hara-kiri for the single this time

Matt Henry to Sarfaraz, no run, another run-out? Surely not. Sarfaraz dabs this to Guptill at backward point and thinks of a quick single, Babar Azam sends him back

Swaroop: "Pakistan living the ideal WC dream. First lose a couple and then script a fairytale comeback." - Yeah. It's getting a little eerie.

Sarfaraz Ahmed, right handed bat, comes to the crease

Matt Henry to Babar Azam, out Haris Sohail Run Out!! Needless from Pakistan and Haris Sohail. Sees his partner drop the ball on the off-side and rushes across for a quick single, Guptill's very alert at backward point and he nearly pulls off a Jonty to catch Sohail well short of his crease. The ball barely moved past the stumps and Guptill put in a headfirst dive to disturb the woodwork on the move. Terrific. Haris Sohail run out (Guptill) 68(76) [4s-5 6s-2]

Matt Henry to Babar Azam, THATS OUT!! Run Out!!

Haris Sohail is run out!

Matt Henry to Haris Sohail, 1 run, a hit-me dart on the pads, Haris Sohail hops and helps it down to fine leg

Matt Henry to Babar Azam, 1 run, short of length outside off, pulled away to deep mid-wicket

Matt Henry [6.0-0-22-0] is back into the attack

Edgbaston is revving up....