New Zealand v Pakistan, 3rd Twenty20, Christchurch

Ahmed, Rehman in as Pakistan bat

Pakistan chose to bat in the third Twenty20 in Christchurch in their attempt to restore pride and gain some winning momentum ahead of the Test series. Both captains were happy with the toss result as Ross Taylor said he would have bowled first due to the grass cover on the pitch.

Shahid Afridi shuffled down the order to bat at his regular position for Pakistan, and Ahmed Shehzad moved up to open. Umar Gul and Shoaib Akhtar were left out of the side for the dead rubber, with left-arm spinner Abdur Rehman and fast bowler Tanvir Ahmed replacing them.

New Zealand, too, made changes, as Dean Brownlie and Adam Milne returned to the team at the expense of Luke Woodcock and Ian Butler.

The weather is likely to remain fine for the duration of the evening. New Zealand currently lead the three-match series 2-0.

New Zealand 1 Jesse Ryder, 2 Martin Guptill, 3 Dean Brownlie, 4 Scott Styris, 5 Ross Taylor (capt), 6 James Franklin, 7 Peter McGlashan (wk), 8 Nathan McCullum, 9 Kyle Mills, 10 Tim Southee, 11 Adam Milne

Pakistan 1 Ahmed Shehzad, 2 Mohammad Hafeez, 3 Younis Khan, 4, Umar Akmal, 5 Shahid Afridi (capt), 6 Asad Shafiq, 7 Abdul Razzaq, 8 Wahab Riaz, 9 Tanvir Ahmed, 10 Saeed Ajmal, 11 Abdur Rehman

Andrew Fernando writes for The Pigeon and blogs here