New Zealand started the Champions Trophy 2025 in a great way. The Kiwi team, captained by Mitchell Santner, defeated hosts Pakistan by 60 runs in the very first match. Thanks to the centuries of Tom Latham and Will Young, New Zealand scored a strong score of 320 runs for the loss of 5 wickets. Latham played an unbeaten innings of 118 runs, while Young scored 107 runs off 113 balls. Pakistan's bowlers failed to break this partnership, which led to a big score for the Kiwi team.

Pakistan's slow batting became the reason for the defeat

The Pakistani team, which came out to chase the target of 321 runs, had a very bad start. Openers Saud Shakeel and captain Mohammad Rizwan returned to the pavilion early. Babar Azam scored 64 runs in 90 balls, but his slow batting proved costly for the team. When the team needed 10 runs per over, Babar kept playing at a slow pace, due to which he was trolled heavily on social media. Trolls say that Babar played this innings not for the team but for his ranking.

Khushdil Shah's fast innings also useless

Khushdil Shah definitely struggled in Pakistan's middle order and scored 69 runs in 49 balls, but he did not get much support from the rest of the batsmen. Fakhar Zaman 24 runs, Salman Agha 42 runs and Tayyab Tahir were out after scoring just 1 run. The entire Pakistani team collapsed for 260 runs in 47.2 overs. With this defeat, Pakistan's hopes of reaching the semi-finals have been dashed and now it will have to win both its remaining matches at any cost.

Next big match against India

Now Pakistan's next match will be against India on 23 February in Dubai. This match will be like a do or die situation for Pakistan. At the same time, New Zealand's victory has strengthened their hopes of reaching the semi-finals. If Pakistan has to maintain its claim in the tournament, then it will not only have to win against India, but will also have to make major improvements in its strategy and batting order.