In the 1st match of Champions Trophy 2025 PAK vs NZ held at Karachi Stadium, New Zealand sealed the victory by 60 runs and took 8 wickets of Pakistan with Babar Azam being the 2nd highest scorer of the side scoring 64 off 90 balls. William O’Rourke managed to get 3 wickets and 2 in the early overs of the 2nd innings. Glenn Phillips took an outstanding catch at the point region with his left hand while diving in the air.
New Zealand’s strong batting performance after setback
New Zealand lost their 3 top-order batsmen Convoy, Mitchell, and the dependent Kane Williamson. Despite the loss, Will Young stood strong in front the Pakistan’s sheer pace and sharp spin. Young made his first ICC tournament century and his 4th in the ODI format with the help of 12 fours and 1 six. He scored 107 off 113 deliveries.
Along with him, Tom Latham supported from the other end by keeping up with the running run rate and holding onto the wickets in the middle over resulting in putting the team in a dominant position. After the wickets of Young Tom and Glenn Phillips managed to put up a mammoth total of 32o runs. In the last 10 overs, Kiwiz scored 113 runs, taking on the death overs and capitalizing them in their favor as the Karachi pitch demands a longer target due to its flat wicket nature which provides help to batsmen.
Pakistan’s absence of intent
Saud Shakeel and Babar Azam opened for Pakistan where Fakhar Zaman was supposed to be there along with Babar. Both the openers have the same playing style where they both played a couple of dot balls in the initial overs mounting the pressure on themselves and Shakeel got caught at the third with a tested bounced by O’Rourke.
Rizwan got dismissed early as well due to an unreal effort by Gleen Phillips on the point taking a one-handed catch in the mid-air for the team. Fakhar Zaman came into bat with some uneasiness in his back due to a prolonged injury and was finding it hard to read the spinners of New Zealand where these finger spinners managed to get a 4* spin on the surface.
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Fakhar had no choice other than targeting boundaries and maximums to keep up with the increasing run-rate as Babar was not getting affected by the asking required run rate and scored 64 off 90 deliveries getting out on a slow delivery by Mitchell Santer. Fakhar got a chance at the mid-wicket with a dropped catch by Conway on the ball of Glenn Phillips but later Fakhar played a loose shot resulting in getting bowled by Michael Bracewell.
Pakistan’s middle and lower order fightback in PAK vs NZ
Where the bigger fishes in the sea failed to hunt in the ocean, some fishes shone bright. Salaman Agha smashed a quick 42 runs off 28 deliveries with the help of 6 boundaries and 1 maximum, joining Khushdil Shah unexpectedly performed exceptionally well being the highest scorer of Pakistan’s side with a great strike rate as well. Khushdil scored 69 runs off 49 deliveries with the help of 10 boundaries and 1 maximum.
New Zealand’s bowling brilliance
From cracking the top order of the opposition to continuing the momentum till the end of the game, all the bowlers supported the team really well on their part with Glenn Phillips going unlucky with no wickets.
Matt Henry lifted the weight of playing the role of the main attacking pacer of the New Zealand side with an impressive economy of 3.40 and taking crucial 3 wickets supported with O’Rourke’s economic overs by picking up 3 wickets of the opposition.
Bracewell and Santner took the responsibility of controlling the middle overs which was assisted by Babar as well due to his defensive approach. Santner took the big fish Babar in the circle on a slow delivery caught by the safe hands of Kane Williamson and in total, he managed to take 3 wickets where as Bracewell bowled out Fakhar, who took just one wicket but managed an impressive economy of 3.80.
