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The mercurial hosts face off with the tenacious Blackcaps in the Champions Trophy curtain-raiser. The format of the tournament leaves infinitesimal margin for error, for warm-ups and second chances, so both teams would have hoped to have more miles under their legs coming into the eight-nation tournament. But with the countdown beginning, there’s no more time for fine-tuning and last-ditch adjustments. The stage is set, eyeballs are transfixed, expectations are soaring and only the performances on matchday will matter.
Stay tuned, for we bring you all the color and analysis from the National Stadium in Karachi as Pakistan, after a 29-year wait, host its first ICC tournament.
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The tail-enders flexed their muscles to reduce the margin of defeat and the degree of embarrassment because the fate of the match was sealed way back. Pakistan showed little to no intent in the first half of their innings, as Babar lumbered to an 81 ball fifty. Some familiar issues for the hosts as they were profligate in the death overs, and then naturally had a mountain to climb. For the third time in a matter of weeks, they have been blown away by New Zealand on their home turf.
Khushdil tries to slap a length delivery from ORourke across the line. Poor connection, and he holes out to long-on.
Commendable innings from the all-rounder though. Kept Pakistan in the game single-handedly till the time he was on the park.
Khushdil Shah is showing the stomach for a fight and batting the way the situation demands to give Pakistan an outside chance even as New Zealand have broken into the tail. His fifty off 38 balls is the fastest against the Blackcaps in Champions Trophy.
After removing Tahir with his flatter trajectory, Santner slows his pace down, produces dip and has Babar bungling up a sweep to perish for 64 off 90 balls. Pakistan are staring down the barrel. They might now have to tweak their approach to try and bat the 50 overs and minimize the impact to their net run-rate.
New Zealand’s frontlines spinners Michael Bracewell and Mitchell Santner are both into the wickets coloumn.
Hasn’t been his most fluent knock but Babar has hung around to keep Pakistan’s hopes alive. He really does need to accelerate though as the asking rate is racing beyond their grasp, and now that Salman has offered short mid-wicket a simple catch the responsibility on him grows.
The number of dot balls played by Pakistan in their first 25 overs reads an eye-popping 104. It’s the worst figure for them in a men’s ODI since the 2018 Dunedin ODI vs New Zealand (117).
Thankfully, Salman Agha is taking down Phillips to breathe some life into the grim innings. The attack has forced New Zealand to revert to a pacer after 18 overs. Phillips has conceded 46 runs in his seven overs whereas no other New Zealand has gone at more than five an over.
After delivering a maiden to Fakhar, Bracewell castles him in his next over for 24 off 41 balls. He darts one in at middle from round the stumps, gets it to dip on the southpaw and bowl him as the sweep is missed altogether. With Fakhar out of the equation, expect the wily Mitchell Santner to bring himself into the attack.
It’s rare for New Zealand to have Bracewell and Phillips bowling ahead of Santner, but they’ve done a decent job against Fakhar. The average turn for New Zealand spinners hitherto has been twice of what Pakistan spinners generated in the first innings.
New Zealand have been trying to induce a top edge when Fakhar Zaman plays the slog sweep and the plan almost paid off if not for the opportunity missed by Conway. He charged in from deep-wicket, dived full length and caught it low but the ball popped out when his arms hit the turf. Very unfortunate.
An injured Fakhar has managed to amp up the scoring rate while the rest have found the going tough. Babar is aiming to bat through the innings. The asking rate is almost 8 now, so credit to New Zealand for the discipline with the ball. Pakistan need a big alliance and some quick runs too to bring the chase back on track.
Glenn Phillips doing what he does best, dropping jaws to the floor with his gravity-defying acrobatics. Miffed by the spate of dots, Rizwan wanted to break the shackles so badly and went hard on the cut shot. Phillips, being the freak livewire he is, pulls off an absolutely breathtaking catch with his weaker hand.
Since the start of 2024, Pakistan have scored at 4.73 in the first 10 overs, only Afghanistan (4.58) and Ireland (4.28) have dawdled at a slower rate among full-member sides. Their dot-ball percentage of 65.4 is only exceeded by Ireland among first-member teams (69.4%).
𝑨 𝒔𝒕𝒖𝒏𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒄𝒂𝒕𝒄𝒉! 𝑼𝒏𝒅𝒐𝒖𝒃𝒕𝒆𝒅𝒍𝒚 𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒃𝒆𝒔𝒕 𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝑮𝒍𝒆𝒏𝒏 𝑷𝒉𝒊𝒍𝒍𝒊𝒑𝒔! 🤯💥🥶
William O'Rourke is on fire 🔥
He removes in-form Pakistan skipper Mohammad Rizwan for just 3(14) ❌👊
🇵🇰 – 22/2 (10)#GlennPhillips #PAKvNZ #ODIs… pic.twitter.com/miXLAHF26j
— Sportskeeda (@Sportskeeda) February 19, 2025
Babar Azar square drives William ORourke to fetch a much-needed boundary. There were LBW appeals on either side of it, however both the current and the ex-captain are still out there.
Drama in Karachi! ⏳
Saud Shakeel falls early, but Fakhar Zaman has to wait a minute before walking out. ☝
Rizwan steps in at No. 3 as Pakistan look to rebuild! 🎯 pic.twitter.com/9fKmB4HhN8
— PakPassion.net (@PakPassion) February 19, 2025
An extremely slow start for Pakistan in the steep chase of 321, and to make matters worse, they’ve lost Saud Shakeel. Looking to cut, he gets a thick edge that travels all the way to third man, where Matt Henry ran to his right, dived, took the catch and rolled to cushion his body.
New Zealand were tottering when they lost three wickets in a space of nine overs in the nascent stage of the innings but this has been an awesome comeback. Phenomenal batting by the experienced trio of Young, Latham and Phillips to spare Kiwis the blushes. While the former two compiled centuries, Phillips hit 61 off 39 balls to demolish Pakistan towards the end.
Second 300-plus total against Pakistan in Champions Trophy after India’s 319/3 at Edgbaston in 2017.
18 runs off the over as Shaheen comes in the firing line. The last three overs have given New Zealand the edge in this match as the score fast approaches 300.
While Latham, New Zealand’s red ball captain, demonstrates that he is not a one trick pony with a well-paced hundred under tricky circumstances, Glenn Phillips’s power game is proving too hot to handle for the hosts.
Haris Rauf is unable to control the flow of runs as New Zealand continue to up the ante in the slog overs. Two lusty blows in the natural swinging arc for Phillips. He’s easing the burden off Latham and there’s cheerful energy in the New Zealand camp. They know Pakistan are being put through the wringer.
We mentioned about Latham’s sweeping ability earlier and this over just reaffirmed the fact. Three sweeps in there and he found the fence each time, even sending the ball over it once.
It was an ideal entry point for Glenn Phillips as he occupied the middle with a dozen overs to go. New Zealand need another 60-80 runs to put a meaty total on the board and Phillips is up to the task as he smokes Khushdil’s arm ball over mid-wicket.
Fuller onto the pads and nonchalantly whipped away over deep mid-wicket for a maximum. It was the shorter part of the ground as well. The New Zealand innings enters its business end.
Naseem Shah provides the much-needed breakthrough. The centurion skews a pull off the toe end of the bat as the man from deep square settles underneath. End of a spunky knock by the man who’s generally been New Zealand’s reserve opener.
The onus is now on Latham, who has crossed fifty, to ensure New Zealand get to a competitive total.
Fourth ODI ton for the technically proficient batter. Walked into the XI as Rachin Ravindra’s replacement and grabbed the opportunity with both hands. New Zealand were struggling at 73/3 but his application at the crease has yanked them out of choppy waters.
NZ batters with hundreds in Champions Trophy
145* – Nathan Astle vs USA, The Oval, 2004
102* – Chris Cairns vs IND, Nairobi, 2000 Final
100 – Kane Williamson vs AUS, Edgbaston, 2017
100* – Will Young vs PAK, Karachi, 2025
New Zealand have resuscitated their wobbly innings courtesy this partnership, which is now worth 78. Anything around 280 could be a challenging score on this surface.
Rizwan brought on his strike bowlers in the middle phase in the hope of a breakthrough but the left-right combination has been tackling the challenges with panache, gradually laying a robust platform for a death-overs explosion.
Will Young just manages to defeat a direct hit at the bowler’s end as he scrambles to make his ground. It was his call for a quick single after a crisp drive towards mid-on. The fielder attacked the ball and then threw down the stumps, but Young beats him to it.
Tom Latham, meanwhile, is working well with the left-arm spinner Khushdil Shah’s angles. His sweeping range is remarkably wide, and New Zealand would be optimistic that he subjugates this positive match-up.
New Zealand are slowly and steadily clawing their way back into the contest, with Young leading the recovery with his composed batsmanship.
As Naseem drifts onto his hips, Young uses the pace on the ball to clip it backward of square on the on-side. Races away to the ropes.
Will Young is seeing the Kookaburra like a football now. A half-volley on the pads, Young leans across, rides the bounce nicely and beats mid-wicket with an aesthetically pleasing on-drive.
Shaheen wasn’t able to extract any noticeable swing or seam with the new ball, so with the older ball he’s switched to left-arm around the wicket and is trying to target the stumps. This ploy allows Afridi to exercise control on unresponsive pitches with a softened ball.
The camera zooms to Rachin Ravindra is the New Zealand dressing room as Young hammers Rauf to the midwicket boundary after bringing up his 11th ODI half-century. Had Ravindra been fit, Young might not have even played this game.
In Williamson’s absence, the right-handed opener had made a statement, winning the Player-of-the-Series award in NZ’s incredible 2-0 sweep of India in India last year. However, he had to sit out for a fit-again Williamson in NZ’s next red-ball tie at home against England. He’s used to a start-stop journey, seizing opportunities whenever he gets them.
He is also habitual of playing in Pakistan. New Zealand will hope that he can convert his third fifty in the country to a maiden hundred.
