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Barbados, May 8 (PTI) Abdur Rehman and Mohammad Sami took two wickets apiece as defending champions Pakistan did extremely well to restrict New Zealand to a modest 133 for seven in their must-win Super Eights game in the T20 Cricket World Cup here today. Even that total would have been hard to achieve had skipper Daniel Vettori, who struck some lusty blows during his fighting 34-ball 38, and Scott Styris (21) not produced 40 runs for the fifth wicket. Both the teams are in a do-or-die situation having lost their first games. Faced with the ignominy of being cast out of the semifinals, which they had qualified for in 2007 and 2009 editions, Shahid Afridi''s men rose to challenge and produced some professional cricket to keep themselves in contention. Sami, who replaced Mohammad Asif in the eleven, drew the first blood, removing Jesse Ryder in the fourth over the innings. If runs had been bleeding when the fast bowlers in operation, it dried up when Afridi introduced Rehman (2/19) and Mohammad Hafeez (3-0-11-0) into the attack. The spin duo barely conceded 30 runs in six overs during the period of Kiwi uncertainty. The spinner had the Kiwis in a bind, even bottling up the adventurous Brendon McCullum (33), who eventually perished to a slog-sweep off Rehman which was gobbled up by Sami at long leg. Moments before McCullum perished, Martin Guptill, who scratched around for 10 deliveries, had holed out to Umar Akmal off Rehman. And when Ross Taylor''s demised in the 10th over, the writing was on the wall for New Zealand. The Kiwis wilted as the scoring rate dipped and the pressure mounted in the death overs. Styris, who was castled by Afridi, Hokins, who holed out to Rehman in the deep off Afridi, fell in quick succession. If Afridi had stunned the connoisseurs with his bizarre captaincy in the game against England, he led from the front today, intelligently rotating, brining the spinners into play when the Kiwis were just about getting into the groove.
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