Unfit Vettori misses out, New Zealand field

Daniel Vettori failed to recover from the hamstring injury he sustained in the previous game, while Ross Taylor took over in a crunch contest for his team and opted to field in overcast conditions at Seddon Park in Hamilton. Jesse Ryder returned to the line-up after being declared fit, and will open the batting with Martin Guptill. New Zealand also rested Tim Southee and Kane Williamson, giving Jacob Oram and Kyle Mills a go.

Pakistan, with a 2-1 lead and a victory away from sealing the series, were boosted by the inclusion of Shoaib Akhtar at the expense of Sohail Tanvir, who's gone for runs this series.

Pakistan: 1 Mohammad Hafeez, 2 Ahmed Shehzad, 3 Kamran Akmal (wk), 4 Younis Khan, 5 Misbah-ul-Haq, 6 Umar Akmal, 7 Shahid Afridi, 8 Abdul Razzaq, 9 Wahab Riaz, 10 Umar Gul, 11 Shoaib Akhtar.

New Zealand: 1 Jesse Ryder, 2 Martin Guptill, 3 Jamie How, 4 Ross Taylor (capt), 5 Scott Styris, 6 James Franklin, 7 Brendon McCullum (wk), 8 Jacob Oram, 9 Nathan McCullum, 10 Kyle Mills, 11 Hamish Bennett.

Siddhartha Talya is a sub editor at ESPNcricinfo