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Over and out McMillan's record effort seals New Zealand victory
HAMILTON, New Zealand (AP) -- New Zealand, paced by a record-setting 98 by Craig McMillan, crushed Pakistan by an innings and 185 runs in the third cricket test Friday to level the series 1-1 at Seddon Park. McMillan hit a world record 26 runs in one over Friday morning to enable New Zealand to declare on 407 for four. Pakistan then capitulated against some penetrative line and length bowling to be bowled out for a 118 in 49.5 overs on the fourth day. Swing bowlers Daryl Tuffey (3-38), who finished the series with 16 wickets at an average of 23.00, and James Franklin with a career-best 4-26, made short work of the Pakistan second innings. This was after some reckless batting on the first day had ended its first innings at 104 after just 26.5 overs. It was a remarkable turnaround for the New Zealand side that had embarrassingly collapsed on the fifth morning of the series opener in Auckland and lost by 299 runs. The two teams played out a high-scoring draw in the second test in Christchurch. New Zealand had gone into the test series after coming from behind to win the five-match one-day series 3-2. It was the biggest victory margin for New Zealand in its 288-test history and was more remarkable considering 122 overs were lost over the first three days due to bad weather, including a complete washout on the second day. "That was as close to a perfect test you can play, bar a couple of (dropped) catches on the first day," said New Zealand skipper Stephen Fleming. "It was the most complete performance and obviously shows by the size of the victory." Fleming claimed Pakistan was "spooked" by the pace and bounce of the surface and said New Zealand's bowling was 100 times better than in the first innings. Faced with a 303-run deficit, Pakistan's batting vulnerability on a seaming surface was badly exposed for the second time. Rookie wicketkeeper batsman Humayun Farhat top-scored with 26 including two sixes while stand-in skipper Inzamam-ul-Haq contributed 20 runs before falling to an outstanding outfield catch by Tuffey at long leg. Tuffey, who had taken a career-best 7-12 and a match-haul of 11-66 for Northern Districts against Wellington here in January, once again led the demolition for New Zealand. After taking 4-49 in the first innings, Tuffey finished with a match-haul of 7-87. McMillan, the form player with the bat in both one-day and the test series, hit part-time leg spinner Younis Khan for 4, 4, 4, 4, 6 and 4, to record the most number of runs hit in a six-ball over in test cricket. The previous record for a six-ball over was 24 runs achieved by five different players and 25 runs for an eight-ball over. When McMillan followed it up with the second of his three sixes off Saqlain Mushtaq in the next over, it was the most number of boundaries hit off consecutive balls -- seven in all -- 4, 4, 4, 4, 6, 4 and 6. "After hitting the first three boundaries I thought why not hit six in the overs," McMillan said of his hitting. McMillan, 24, who was voted International Player of the year for his efforts, rated his 97-ball knocks among his top three innings in international cricket. Pakistan had gone into the match test without skipper Moin Khan and fast bowler Mohammad Sami, both ruled out with injuries. "We didn't bat well or bowl well," Inzamam said. "We played a lot of rash shots and it was always going to be hard to stay in the game once you have been bowled out in under 27 overs on the first day."
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