Looking to begin their tour with a bang at Colin Maiden Park in Auckland, Pakistan were bowled out for a paltry 92 in 17.4 overs.

Auckland then reached the victory target in the Twenty20 match with 40 balls to spare.

“We played pretty badly today,” Shahid Afridi, the Pakistan captain, told Arab News from Auckland.

“But it’s a timely wake-up call and I’m sure the boys will bounce back when the series against New Zealand gets underway from Sunday,” he added.

Afridi’s views were echoed by team coach Waqar Younis. The former Pakistan captain stressed that there is no need to worry in spite of the fact that Pakistan were miserable in their very first outing of what is their last international assignment in the lead up to World Cup 2011.

"It wasn't the ideal start but that happens sometimes when you've just arrived in the country and you don't really know much about the pitch conditions," said the former Test pacer. "I'm not really worried about it," he added.

Batting has been Pakistan’s Achilles heals in recent times as they have lost time and again because of their fragility in that area of the game.

That is why Pakistan’s batsmen worked overtime with the legendary Javed Miandad at a training camp in Lahore before leaving for New Zealand earlier this month.

However, there were no signs of any improvement in Auckland as neither of the Pakistani batters could stay on the crease for long against the Auckland attack.

Waqar rued the fact that all of his batsmen flopped in the match. "The batting had been undergoing a good deal of work but the batsmen failed to click in the game and no one had taken responsibility to anchor the effort," he stressed.

However, Waqar was quick to add that Sunday’s Twenty20 International against the Black Caps will be a different ball game.

"I think they've learned the lesson and hopefully in the next game it will be a different ball game," he said. "We have done badly today, and we have spoken about it. We have to work hard over the next couple of days so we don't repeat this type of performance." Pakistan will carry out a couple of strenuous training sessions in the lead up to the first of their three Twenty20 Internationals. They will later feature in two Tests before a six-match One-day International series that will conclude early in February.