Champions Trophy: Will Young and Tom Latham’s centuries help New Zealand beat Pakistan in opener

New Zealand beat Pakistan by 60 runs in the opening match of the Champions Trophy. Will Young and Tom Latham’s centuries helped New Zealand post a formidable total of 320 runs. Naseem Shah and Haris Rauf took 2 wickets each. Pakistan could only manage to score 260. Khushdil Shah (69) was the top scorer for Pakistan. Will O’Rourke and Mitchelle Santner took 3 wickets each. Tom Latham was named player of the match. With the win, New Zealand have  made it 4-0 against Pakistan in all their Champions Trophy meetings.

After the match, Pakistan skipper Mohammad Rizwan said, “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.”

An elated New Zealand captain Mitchell Santner said, “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.”