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Chasing 140 for victory, the Otago Volts had an early but brief hiccup before captain Brendon McCullum guided the Kiwis to an eight-wicket win over Faisalabad Wolves in Qualifier 1 of the Champions League T20 in Mohali on Tuesday.
McCullum struck a quickfire 83 off 65 deliveries to take Volts past Wolves.
The dashing batsman was dropped when on 39 (in the 13th over) but he used the lifeline, hitting two fours and as many sixes en route a half-century.
The Volts got off to a disastrous start, opener Neil Broom being dismissed for a duck -- caught by Khurram Shehzad off the bowling of Samiullah Khan.
But Hamish Rutherford and McCullum steadied the innings before the former was dismissed by Ajmal in the sixth over.
There was no more trouble for the Volts though as McCullum and Derek de Boorder took the Kiwis past the Pakistan outfit's total with 13 balls to spare.
Earler, Faisalabad Wolves won the toss and elected to bat.
However, Misbah-ul-Haq’s decision backfired.
The Wolves were jolted by the Volts early on. Medium pacer James McMillan struck early blows, dismissing openers Ammar Mahmood (5) and Ali Waqas (4) to reduce the Pakistan side to 12 for 2 in the fourth over.
Khurram Shehzad (27 off 36) tried to stem the rot in the middle.
The Wolves lost wickets at regular intervals.
Misbah revived the innings, scoring 46 off 34 deliveries. But the free-fall continued and they eventually put up 139-8 at the end of 20 overs.
McMillan, Ian Butler and James Neesham took two wickets each for the New Zealand side.