Latham and I knew we were in a little bit of trouble three down: Will Young

The Champions Trophy has begun and Pakistan have suffered a big blow by losing the opener to New Zealand in Karachi on February 19. The title defence has not started well for the Men in Green who were completely outplayed by the BlackCaps.

First up, the hosts struggled to contain the middle-order Kiwi batters in the first innings and, in the second, failed to build effective partnerships in their pursuit of 320. It seemed like a tricky wicket at the National Stadium in Karachi and the men who made sure that the Kiwis set a huge target on the board were Will Young and Tom Latham.

The Kiwi duo built an important 118-run fourth-wicket partnership to set a platform for the team. Young talked about what the mindset was when he and Latham were batting together and mentioned the key to batting was to build partnerships, especially after losing three big wickets early on.

Also Read: Pakistan vs New Zealand, Match 1 - Who Said What?

“To be completely honest with you, Tommy and I knew we were in a little bit of trouble three down. We didn't want to look too far ahead and start talking past scores and things like that. We wanted to get to 30 overs, three down. That was our first goal, Then the next phase was to the 35th over and then I got out after that. But when I came off, I think I got out in the 38th over, I was saying to the boys I thought 280 was a really good total,” Young said in the post-match press conference.

The Kiwi opener also talked about the behaviour of the ball off the pitch and put light on what they felt was an achievable and defendable total.

“If the seamers hit a good length, it was difficult. The odd ball was going down. We saw from the Pakistan spinners as well that when they slowed the ball up, especially, it would hold in the surface and there was a bit of turn there. And when they fired it through a little bit quicker, it was skiddy. So, it wasn't easy. And I thought 280 was a good score. And obviously, the way GP [Glenn Phillips] and Tommy got things going, it was just brilliant the way that they finished off the innings. And to get to 320, we all felt that we were slightly ahead of the game at that point.

"But in the same breath, as you say, Pakistan chased down 350 on the same wicket. So, we knew we had to start well, and thankfully we did that and managed to keep it going," Young added.

Speaking of the game, the Player of the Match was Tom Latham for his incredible unbeaten knock of 118 off just 104 deliveries. The Kiwis will next be playing Bangladesh on February 24 followed by India on March 2.