Williamson ton ends Pakistan run
Kane Williamson may have been New Zealand's hero in their dominant win over Pakistan in the opening one-day international in Wellington on Saturday, but he said it was not a game for heroics.
"You're always thinking about the role you need to play and the situation of the game, and it certainly didn't require something silly," Williamson said after New Zealand beat the Champions Trophy holders by 61 runs under the Duckworth-Lewis system.
New Zealand made 315 for seven in their 50 overs and had the tourists at 166 for six when rain stopped play in the 31st over.
Pakistan had arrived on a nine-match winning streak but fresh from playing in more accommodating conditions than the 120 kilometre an hour (75 mph) winds and rain that greeted them in Wellington.
After being sent in to bat, Colin Munro (58) and Martin Guptill (48) gave New Zealand a flying start with 83 for the first wicket before Williamson went to the middle with the dismissal of Munro in the 13th over.
While the openers plundered the boundaries, Williamson's 115 off 117 deliveries came from a diet of ones and twos with only eight fours and one six.
Pakistan were in trouble in the very first over of their reply when Tim Southee took the wickets of Azhar Ali and Babar Azam, both lbw.
Fakhar Zaman battled bravely to try to restore the Pakistan innings and was unbeaten on 82, the only innings of note, when rain stopped play and Southee had the figures of three for 22.
SCORES IN BRIEF
NEW ZEALAND: 315-7 in 50 overs (Guptill 48, Munro 58, Williamson 115, Nicholls 50; Hasan Ali 3-61)
PAKISTAN: 166-6 in 30.1 overs (Fakhar 82 not out, Shadab 28; Southee 3-22, Boult2-35)
Result: New Zealand won by 61 runs (D-L method)
Player-of-the-match: Williamson
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