JOHANNESBURG (AP):

New Zealand booked a place in the final of the ICC Champions Trophy against Australia with a convincing five-wicket victory over Pakistan yesterday.

An unbeaten 75 from New Zealand middle-order batsman Grant Elliott guided his side to victory at Wanderers Stadium after the Black Caps had earlier done well to restrict Pakistan to 233-9 after losing the toss and being asked to bowl first.

New Zealand reached their victory target for the loss of just five wickets with 14 balls to spare and will play Ricky Ponting's side in the final tomorrow.

Elliott's 104-run partnership for the fifth wicket with captain Daniel Vettori took New Zealand to the brink of victory. Vettori was stumped by Kamran Akmal off spinner Saeed Ajmal for 41 in the 47th over of the innings with his side just four runs short of victory. Neil Broom struck the winning run to finish on three not out.

Spilling an easy catch

Things could have been very different if Pakistan captain Younis Khan had not dropped Elliott on 42, spilling an easy catch in the covers off the bowling of Mohammad Aamer.

"If I take that catch maybe things may have changed, but in sports this is not the first time," Khan said.

Elliott, 30, who was born in Johannesburg and only qualified to play for New Zealand in 2007, played a patient innings before cutting loose in the batting powerplay when he and Vettori added 55 runs.

Elliott hit two fours and a six off the first three balls of the 46th over, bowled by Umar Gul, and Vettori was quick to praise his match-winning contribution.

"Elliott was great against Gul in that over, which took the game away from them," Vettori said.

Elliott hit five fours and a six in his 103-ball innings.

Ross Taylor and opener Aaron Redmond were the only other batsmen to score more than 20, with Taylor hitting a four and two sixes in his 38, and Redmond 31, with five fours, before scooping a catch back to Saeed Ajmal. Taylor was bowled by Shahid Afridi.

Ajmal was the pick of the Pakistan bowlers with figures of 2-39.

Earlier, Kiwi seamer Ian Butler took four wickets to help restrict Pakistan to 233-9.

Khan lamented Pakistan's inability to reach 250 and its poor performance during the powerplays.

"The plan was that someone from the top four should stay." Khan said. "It was a good pitch to bat, if (we had) scored 250, it would have been very good."

20 runs without success

Butler's first two overs went for 20 runs without success, but he struck in his third and fourth overs, having Shoaib Malik caught for 2 by Ross Taylor at first slip and Kamran Akmal held by Aaron Redmond on the cover boundary.

Butler later took the wickets of Shahid Afridi for 4 and Gul for 6 to finish with 4-44 and reduce Pakistan to 192-8.

The only Pakistan batsmen to show any application were Umar Akmal, who hit 55 off 62 balls with seven fours, and Yousuf, who hit three fours to score 45 off 78 balls.

Umar Akmal and Yousuf added 80 for the fifth wicket before Yousuf was bowled off the inside edge by Kyle Mills when trying to run the ball down to third man.

Four more wickets fell for 32 runs to leave Pakistan on 198-9, but Aamer and Ajmal then added 35 off 5.4 overs.

New Zealand's fast bowlers came in for some punishment at the end of the innings. Shane Bond, who had applied good pressure with the new ball, conceded 22 runs in his final two overs to finish with 1-54.

Vettori dismissed Khan for 15, Akmal and Naved-ul-Hasan for 8 to finish with 3-43.