In the Champions Trophy opening, Latham and Young interrupt Pakistan’s celebration

The renovated National Stadium was thronged to capacity after glorious sunset turned into an alluring evening. However, only those that were clad in green could manage to express some coating which was overshadowed by New Zealands’s performance in the ICC tournament that was hosted in Pakistan. Tom Latham (118*) and Will Young (107) completed centuries driving New Zealand into a superb 4th wicket position as the black caps scored 320 and one more host sank at the beginning of a signature tournament.

Latham reeled off a high-grade 118, building from a gold mid-innings fifty he managed against the same rivals in the final of the tri-series a week back at this venue. Young, who only made the team because of a unique injury to Rachin Ravindra, scored his 107 in what must be the most comprehensive century and even split covering hitting from the front foot and backfoot. Together they enabled New Zealand to soldier on in the match after a scrappy start on a wicket that had two ends with varying degrees of bounce. After the bowlers got to work, leaving Pakistan with the inability to win the match.

Partnerships key to NZ’s win on tricky surface, says Young

The victory margin was 60 runs and as such does not tell the complete story. New Zealand have struggled to obtain a dew-proof score while Rizwan Mohammad challenged them to do so during the toss. Given the past few matches played at New Zealand, it was a good start on Rizwan Mohammad’s special day. But the spectators at the historic cricket stadium did not have high hopes because after two balls were bowled, Fakhar Zaman, the player who single-handedly gives life to the phrase ‘defending champs’, got injured while trying to field and had to leave the pitch limping while grabbing his waist. For the latest cricket update, Click 1xbetfair

New Zealand started off strong, but Shaheen Afridi and Naseem Shah could not find any lateral movement in the air or the surface. Young clipped boundaries off the friendly deliveries aimed towards his pads, earning 30 runs in the first five overs. Rizwan brought Abrams Ahmed into the sixth over, and the leg-spinner justified the call by taking out Devon Conway with just the ninth ball when the slider bowled him after he attempted to defend it. Furthermore, Pakistan intensified their attack after that breakthrough, teasing Kane Williamson into a feather edge off Naseem’s first delivery in the next over, which the keeper snapped up. Daryl Mitchell attempted to pull but was caught off guard with the pace and bounce off the pitch by an energetic Haris Rauf, which brought New Zealand down to 73.

The two batters managed to build an impressive partnership of 118 with very little effort, as if cruising. Overwise, the runs came straight and Latham pretty much dominated the spinners with his patented sweep, while Young cut and drove with beauty. The two batters also rotated strike and ran briskly. The only hiccup in the partnership came at Latham’s expense when Rauf took over a spell and bowled a series of fast short balls that jumped at him. This included one poor review for a caught behind, a tough catch put down while Latham was on 41, and a fended away ball that was not so well defended, but sufficiently away from the bowler who charged at him.

Young became the fourth New Zealand batter to claim a Champions Trophy century. He did this by hitting a single off his 107th delivery. At this point, Latham had 8 ODI tons and reached his milestone 15 balls faster than his teammate. He scored his second fifty in just 31 balls along with 10 fours and 3 sixes. He had to cash in on the platform that his teammate put. These plans were supported by Latham, who received a brilliant cameo from Glenn Phillips who hit 4 sixes in his 39 ball 61. New Zealand reached 320 at the expense of 8 wickets within 40 overs. Having witnessed the New Zealand batting lineup wobbly during the innings, achieving this score seemed unattainable. However, this seemed possible after the final 10 overs which accounted for 113 runs.

Although Zaman was injured and could not take the opening bat, Pakistan should have made more conservative moves to keep pace with the required run rate. In doing so, they would have been able to peacock some of the aggressive intent they had, but alas, Pakistan limped in the provided overs scoring 22 for 2. Will O’Rourke got the two wickets. As Saud Shakeel looked to cut, he found the third man, which left Rizwan. Rizwan’s wicket was all Phillippe’s doing. Smith, who bowled the first over, plucked an outstanding plied catch at backward point to dismiss Rizwan giving himself his set player.

Zaman withdrew himself out to bat at 4, with a sprained leg which restricted his movements and running between the wickets was a challenge. Interestingly Babar Azam didn’t seem keen on taking the two offspinners operating of Michael Bracewell and Phillips. During the first seventeen overs of the chase, Pakistan played almost seventy-five dot balls which evidently allowed the required run rate to increase above eight per over. Although, the suspected dew never came through, and due to the New Zealand spinners being able to extract greater than double of what their Pakistani counterparts were, even third seamer Nathan Smith was not required to bowl until 31.

Zaman managed to make a few runs but was out in the end while going for an aggressive shot off Bracewell. Babar made a half-century but scored a slow 64. This implied that the hitters around him needed to constantly accelerate their scoring to reach the target. Salman Ali Agha scored 42 from 28 and Khushdil Shah scored at a very impressive rate, making 69 off 49, but all of them were constantly taking one rash decision too many and reaped the consequences of not trying hard enough in the beginning of the chase. Pakistan’s challenge could only last 16 balls…and Santner both took three wickets. For the Latest Cricket Update; Click Here

Brief scores: New Zealand 320/5 in 50 overs (Tom Latham 118*, Will Young 107; Naseem Shah 2-63) beat Pakistan 260 in 47.2 overs (Khushdil Shah 69, Babar Azam 64; Will O’Rourke 3-47, Mitchell Santner 3-66) by 60 runs.