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In a bid to strengthen their batting lineup and go ahead in the ODI series against Pakistan, New Zealand will play just two pace bowlers in the fourth game in Napier tomorrow.
The Kiwis, smashed by Pakistan in Christchurch on Saturday, will go in with a squad that is most likely to include seven specialist batsmen. The two quicks, Hamish Bennett and Tim Southee, spinner Daniel Vettori and all-rounders Nathan McCullum and Scott Stryis are expected to complete the 50 overs.
The move to stack up the batting lineup is a little baffling and it seems the home side has already resigned to the fact that their bowling is unlikely to produce anything dramatic.
But Vettori, returning to the side from injury, remain confident the team has enough bowling to dent the Pakistani batsmen who racked up 293-7 in their 43-run win in the 3rd ODI.
"Nathan and myself are playing this game and hopefully that will strengthen it. Napier is always going to be a runfest so to restrict them to a respectable score is going to be difficult," Vettori said.
"Batting will be the key in this game; the team who can put up that big score and one or two performances will make the difference."
Meanwhile, Pakistan’s coach Waqar Younis said there would only be one change at the most from the side that won comfortably at Lancaster Park.
The change is likely to come in the form of either Shoaib Akhtar or Abdur Rehman in place of the struggling Sohail Tanvir.
Pakistan (probable): 1 Ahmed Shehzad, 2 Mohammad Hafeez, 3 Younis Khan, 4 Misbah-ul-Haq, 5 Umar Akmal, 6 Kamran Akmal (wk), 7 Shahid Afridi (capt), 8 Abdul Razzaq, 9 Abdur Rehman-Shoaib Akhtar/Sohail Tanvir, 10 Umar Gul, 11 Wahab Riaz.
New Zealand (probable): 1 Jesse Ryder, 2 Martin Guptill, 3 Ross Taylor , 4 Scott Styris, 5 Kane Williamson, 6 Jamie How, 7 Brendon McCullum (wk), 8 Daniel Vettori (capt), 9 Nathan McCullum, 10 Tim Southee, 11 Hamish Bennett.
