April 21, 2002	Sunday	Safar 7, 1423

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KARACHI, April 20: The most predictable thing about Pakistan is their unpredictability. And that would be on test once again when the three-match one-day series against a depleted New Zealand begins at the National Stadium Sunday afternoon.

Pakistan would surely start as firm favourites as the Black Caps are missing the services of the injured quartet bowlers of Chris Cairns, Shane Bond, Dion Nash and Daniel Vettori.

To further complicate the visitors problems, paceman Daryl Tuffey was down with high fever, Chris Harris was seen limping while the decisions on Chris Nevin, Craig McMillan and Lou Vincent have been put off until the start of the match.

Pakistan, on the contrary, are at full strength and are set to field an unchanged team that blasted Sri Lanka in the Sharjah Cup final by 217 runs.

Nevertheless, Pakistan’s inconsistency was exposed in Sharjah when they lost to Sri Lanka in both league matches. And as cricket pundits started to question their ability Pakistan bounced back to first belt New Zealand by eight wickets to qualify for the final and the rest is all history.

“We are working on bringing in consistency and I am confident that by the end of forthcoming tournament, we will be a more consistent team,” skipper Waqar Younis said on eve of the match.

Coach Mudassar Nazar was also wary of Pakistan’s unpredictability.

“I think if you compare Pakistan with Australia player by player, we are at par. But Australia is ahead of us because they are consistent and winning matches regularly,” he said.

“I think it has more to do with mental toughness. But Pakistan is aware of this fact and I am optimistic that we would change things around,” he added.

Waqar refused to predict the outcome of the series but admitted that Pakistan had a psychological advantage over the Black Caps.

“Cricket is a funny game and I don’t want to make any predictions. But yes, we have an advantage over New Zealand who, despite missing the services of frontline players, are still a competitive team,” he said.

“We are a young side and we are struggling with injury problems. But we will try to do our best against