Twitter Reactions: Young, Latham centuries flattens Pakistan as New Zealand win in Champions Trophy opener
This defeat was Pakistan's fourth loss in as many games against the Kiwis in the Champions Trophy.
New Zealand won the tournament opener of the Champions Trophy 2025 by a margin of 60 runs at the National Stadium, in Karachi, extending their recent dominance over Pakistan in the ODI format.
The Black Caps were put in to bat first by the home side. They started off quite positively, going at a run-a-ball after five overs. With the positive manner in which Will Young got started after a string of low scores in the 50-over games played in the recent past, he looked set for a big one. With the top-order batters looking set against pace, spin was introduced quite early on.
A beautiful carrom ball by Abrar Ahmed castled Devon Conway for the first wicket of the game. The seasoned Kane Williamson departed in the subsequent over by a Naseem Shah away-seaming delivery. Young brought up a fluently-constructed half-century in the same over in which Daryl Mitchell was caught at mid-on.
Tom Latham joined Young in the middle. Together, they worked effectively to restore stability. At the end of 30 overs, New Zealand were placed at 148/3. Young racked up his ton in the 35th over with a sweep to deep backward square-leg. This was his first one in the format in overseas conditions. Young's dismissal a few overs later granted Naseem Shah his second wicket after coming into the attack for a fresh spell.
Thereafter, all rounder Glenn Phillps arrived to replace Young at the crease. The dynamic all-rounder's first boundary of the game was a maximum down the ground. From that point, Latham took it up a notch too. The two clobbered the Pakistani bowlers at the death. Latham brought up his eighth ODI ton in the business end of the innings. Phillips was dismissed for an enterprising 39-ball 61-run knock on the fourth delivery of the final over of the innings.
The first boundary of the run-chase came on the penultimate delivery of the fifth over off Babar Azam's bat. The final delivery of the batting powerplay was when Phillips took an absolute screamer at backward point to get rid of Mohammad Rizwan. An acrobatic one-handed grab left Pakistan two-down for 22 at the 10-over mark.
Fakhar Zaman, who had suffered a muscular strain during the second ball of the match, carried on valiantly despite enduring a lot of pain while batting. However, his stay ended in the 21st over after his timber was disturbed while attempting a slog sweep. Salman Ali Agha displayed great energy with the bat. By the time Pakistan were 30 overs into their chase, Agha had surged to 41, while Babar was one run shy of his fifty.
Strikes in successive overs pushed the hosts on the backfoot, almost making the target seem out of reach already. Mitchell Santner put an end to Babar's knock. From that point onwards, it was all about a dazzling knock played by Khushdil Shah. Along with Shaheen Shah Afridi, he forged a 47-run partnership for the seventh wicket, with the 30-year-old all-round doing the bulk of the heavy lifting.
The southpaw walked back for a career-best 69 (49). Haris Rauf and Naseem Shah provided some entertainment towards the end, but it was too late as the remaining couple of wickets were scalped within a span of a few deliveries to grant the Kiwis yet another resounding win against Pakistan; their third in a span of 11 days.
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