ICC Champions Trophy 2025 commenced on 19th February with a clash between New Zealand and Pakistan.
New Zealand won the opening match by a good margin. Will Young and Tom Latham from the New Zealand team scored centuries and played an important role in the victory.
Pakistan is hosting a global tournament after nearly three decades. However, New Zealand spoiled their party by winning the opening match. They handed a 60-run defeat to Pakistan in Karachi last night.
In this sharp and short tournament where teams will only have three group stage matches, a defeat like this might jeopardize the chances of Pakistan making it into the semi-finals. Will Young and Tom Latham were the key players for New Zealand and scored centuries for their team. With the help of twin centuries, the New Zealand team was able to score a big total of 320 runs.
Fakhar Zaman, the opener for Pakistan, could not open the inning due to an injury he sustained in the first inning while chasing down a cover drive from Will Young. He was then forced off the field for the rest of the match. He came to bat at number 4 when Pakistan was 22 for 2 in ten overs. It was visible that he was hampering while running between the wickets. New Zealand spinners kept the ball away from him which led to his dismissal for 24 runs in 41 balls.
The rest of the Pakistan batters failed to convert the starts they got. Babar Azam played a very slow inning when he completed his fifty of 81 balls.
In the end, New Zealand managed to bowl out Pakistan for 260 runs despite a counterattack by Khushdil Shah who scored 69 runs off just 49 balls. Pakistan team was bowled out in the 48th over of the chase.
Here is the brief score for the match.
New Zealand 320 for 5 (Latham 118*, Young 107, Phillips 61, Naseem 2-63) beat Pakistan 260 (Khushdil 69, Babar 64, O’Rourke 3-47, Santner 3-66) by 60 runs.
