Poor effort in the death overs by Pakistan bowlers and disappointing batting in the powerplay following the untimely injury to opener Fakhar Zaman contributed to their defeat to New Zealand in the opening match of the Champions Trophy, skipper Mohammad Rizwan said on Wednesday.
Rizwan said their failure to execute their plans in the death overs and superb batting by the Black Caps allowed New Zealand to put up a massive score of 320 which eventually led to their 60-run defeat.
New Zealand's top order led by Will Young (107) and Tom Latham (118*), who shared a 118-run fourth-wicket stand, boosted by a late flourish by Glenn Phillips with a blistering 39-ball 61 powered New Zealand to an imposing 320 in their 50 overs. With opener Fakhar Zaman forced to bat lower-down the order due to a back injury suffered early in the New Zealand innings, the total always seemed out of Pakistan’s reach given their inconsistent batting performances in recent weeks.
Babar Azam scored a patient 60 while Khushdil Shah (69 off 49) and Salman Agha (42 off 28) tried to battle it out but in the end, that was not enough as Pakistan were bundled out for 260 in 47.2 overs.
I think they made a very good target, we didn't expect they would get 320. We thought around 260 when we took early wickets. The Will Young-Latham partnership was crucial. We tried, but they played very smartly and that's why they got to that total. The pitch was not easy to bat early on, but Will Young and Latham's innings were crucial. Our execution in the end overs was not good, and that's why they made that score.
Rizwan said they lost momentum with the ball in the death overs and then with the bat in the power-play.
We lost momentum twice, first in the death overs and then in the powerplay with the bat. Losing Fakhar Zaman [as opener] was crucial
We didn't want to put pressure on ourselves by thinking we are defending champions. This match is gone, and the next match is another normal match for us.
New Zealand captain Mitchell Santner gave credit to his batters, particularly opener Will Young and Tom Latham for making a big score possible.
I thought Pakistan bowled well, even through the middle stage, but the well Young and Latham rotated the strike and got the odd boundary really set us up. We were thinking 260-280, but it shows what you can do if you have a platform and wickets in hand.
After the score we got, the first 10 overs with the ball were outstanding, the way our new-ball guys were able to smash a length. We built the run-rate pressure and were able to chip wickets throughout.
Tonight there wasn't much dew, maybe because of the wind, but hitting that slightly shorter length - 9-10m - was crucial for the quicks, and bowling a little slower for our spinners, we were able to get it to grip. And our ground fielding was outstanding, we were able to squeeze the new batsmen.
This was New Zealand's fourth win against Pakistan in the Champions Trophy from four matches. The Black Caps also maintained their recent dominant run against Pakistan as this was their third win against the hosts in the last couple of weeks after beating them twice in the ODI series.
This also boost New Zealand's chances of qualifying for the semifinals from this group in which India and Bangladesh are the other teams.
