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Dubai: Shahid Afridi described Pakistan's defeat in the One-day series as "shameful" but was hopeful his players could lift their performance for the two-match Twenty20 series starting on Thursday.
Pakistan lost the final match by a narrow seven-run margin in Abu Dhabi to go down 2-1 to New Zealand in the three-match ODI series.
"It was a shameful defeat and we batted like club cricketers," said Afridi, who will lead the side for the Twenty20 series because Younis Khan quit the shortest form of the game after leading Pakistan to victory in England in June.
During Monday's ODI, Pakistan, who managed to dismiss New Zealand for 211 all out, were let down by their top-order batsmen as they struggled to 101 for 9.
An explosive unbeaten 73 by tail-ender Mohammad Aamir who set the highest score for a number 10 batsman in the history of One-day cricket gave them an outside chance of winning.
But Aamir and Saeed Ajmal's new Pakistani record of 103 for the tenth wicket could not prevent New Zealand from taking the last wicket to survive the turn around and win the match.
Afridi said he has been trying to motivate his players after the defeat, adding that he did not believe being defending Twenty20 champions would put them under extra pressure in Thursday's opening match.
"We need to stick to the basics and do our best to win both the matches," said Afridi, man-of-the-match in both the semi-final and final of June's world Twenty20.
Opener Imran Nazir and all-rounders Sohail Tanvir and Fawad Alam have joined the squad for the Twenty20 series. Younis, Mohammad Yousuf, Salman Butt and Wahab Riaz have all been left out.
New Zealand have yet to defeat Pakistan in a Twenty20 encounter but have been buoyed by their one-day series success in Abu Dhabi, said captain Daniel Vettori.
"The One-day series win was a confidence booster for us and I am sure the guys will be more motivated," said Vettori, whose team came from 1-0 down in the series.
"The conditions in the One-day matches were favourable to Pakistan and here also they will suit them, but the key thing is that we have a series win and must keep the pressure up and win the Twenty20 as well."
The second Twenty20 match will be played on Friday.
Teams
Pakistan: Shahid Afridi (capt), Khalid Latif, Imran Farhat, Fawad Alam, Imran Nazir, Umar Akmal, Shoaib Malik, Kamran Akmal (wk), Abdul Razzaq, Rana Naved-ul-Hasan, Umar Gul, Mohammad Aamir, Rao Iftikhar, Saeed Ajmal, Sohail Tanvir.
New Zealand: Daniel Vettori (capt), Brendon McCullum (wk), Aaron Redmond, Martin Guptill, Ross Taylor, Neil Broom, Ian Butler, James Franklin, Jacob Oram, Scott Styris, Nathan McCullum, Kyle Mills, Tim Southee, Shane Bond, BJ Watling.
Match fact
Thursday Nov. 12, 2009
Start time: 20:00 local, 16:00 GMT
