Ryder’s ton help Kiwis mount 311-7

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AUCKLAND: Jessie Ryder hit form with a century as New Zealand posted 311, their highest score of the one-day series against Pakistan, batting first in the dead rubber at Eden Park in Auckland on Saturday.

Ryder cracked six sixes and seven fours on his way to 107 off 93 balls for his second one-day century, while down the order Nathan McCullum with 65 and an unbeaten 58 from Scott Styris helped bolster the New Zealand total.

After being put in to bat, New Zealand produced their most impressive innings of the six-match series, and Ryder's performance was the best individual score, although too late to make a difference to the series outcome.

Pakistan took an unbeatable 3-1 lead when they trounced New Zealand by 41 runs in the fifth game in Hamilton on Thursday. The second game was washed out.

With nothing at stake but pride, New Zealand ditched the experiment of batting Brendon McCullum down the order, which had not paid off in the earlier matches, and restored the swashbuckling batter to his opener's role.

But he only made 12 before being outsmarted by Sohail Tanvir, who fired down a ball slightly wider than usual. McCullum's attempt to pull it over mid off resulted in him getting an edge off the toe of the bat to wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal.

Enter Ryder to join Martin Guptill and New Zealand took charge bringing up their 100 with a Ryder six in the 15th over and putting on 123 for the second wicket.

Guptill, as he has done throughout the series, made a sound start before throwing his wicket away with a rash shot.

He reached 44 when he tried to hit Abdul Razzaq out of the ground and was caught by Umar Gul at long on to start a New Zealand slide that saw them slump from 141-1 to 190-5 in 11 overs.

Ryder, who required a runner in the latter part of his innings, saw his innings come to an end when he skied part-time spinner Mohammad Hafeez and was caught at deep midwicket by Tanvir.

Styris and Nathan McCullum picked up the pace for New Zealand in the closing overs as they produced a 120-run stand for the sixth wicket in 14 overs.

Abdul Razzaq was the pick of the Pakistan bowlers with 2-23 off seven overs, while Hafeez, who was surprisingly called upon to bowl at the end, took 2-57 off nine overs.