New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori won the toss and elected to bat in the World Cup Group A match against Pakistan at the newly-built Pallekele stadium on Tuesday.

New Zealand brought in Jamie How and Jacob Oram in place of unwell Jesse Ryder and Hamish Bennett in two changes from the side which beat Zimbabwe by seven wickets in their last match.

Pakistan, who have won all three matches to sit on top of the group with six points, recalled paceman Shoaib Akhtar and fit-again left-arm spinner Abdur Rehman who both missed the 46-run win over Canada.

They replaced Wahab Riaz and Saeed Ajmal.

The Pallekele stadium becomes the 178th one-day international venue.

Pakistan: Shahid Afridi (capt), Misbah-ul-Haq, Mohammad Hafeez, Kamran Akmal, Younis Khan, Umar Akmal, Abdul Razzaq, Abdur Rehman, Shoaib Akhtar, Umar Gul, Ahmed Shahzad

New Zealand: Daniel Vettori (capt), Brendon McCullum (wkt), Martin Guptill, Jamie How, Ross Taylor, James Franklin, Scott Styris, Nathan McCullum, Kyle Mills, Tim Southee, Jacob Oram.

Umpires: Daryl Harper (AUS) and Nigel Llong (ENG)

TV umpire: Ian Gould (ENG)

Match referee: Chris Broad (ENG)

Pitch conditions: This is the unused pitch at a stadium where the only international match, a Test between Sri Lanka and the West Indies, was played, but not finished due to rain, in December last year. The pitch looks brown without traces of grass, but has good bounce and will be quicker at the start. It will help strokeplay.