New Zealand 320 for 5 (Latham 118 *, Young 107, Phillips 61, Naseem 2-63) Beat Pakistan260 (Khushdil 69, Babar 64, O’Rourke 3-47, Santner 3-66) by 60 points
Pakistan had to wait almost three decades for a world tournament to return to their country, but New Zealand has spoiled its group on the opening day of the Champions Trophy, giving co-animators a loss of 60 points to Karachi. In a short Sharp tournament, where each team plays only three group games, a defeat like this could compromise the chances of Pakistan to make the semi-finals. Will Young and Tom Latham were the architects of the victory of their team, the two strikers marking exceptional hundreds to establish the domination that followed, but there was also a little chance.
Two bullets in the match, Fakhar Zaman suffered an injury while pursuing Young cover driving and was forced to leave the field for large parts of the first rounds. Due to the time spent out of the field, Fakhar, whose big blow is exactly what was necessary for a big prosecution, could not open the striker in their pursuit of 321. And when he was released at the number 4 – Pakistan was 22 for 2 out of ten letters at the time – it was visibly hindered while it was running between the counters. New Zealand Offspinners, Michael Bracewell and Glenn Phillips, continued to hide the ball away from his scope and made life even more difficult for him. Fakhar’s tortured stay finally ended when Bracewell played him with a non-vanishing for 24 balls out of 41.
Like Fakhar, most Pakistani strikers failed to go out at first speed, including Babar Azam who needed 81 balls for his fifty. The attack on New Zealand was exhausted by injuries to Lockie Ferguson and Ben Sears, but their spinners compensated for this on land that offered a variable turn and rebound. The spinners were so good that New Zealand did not need Nathan Smith, their third designer, until the 31st. Until then, Pakistan’s demand rate had almost touched ten years.
