Pakistan’s President Asif Zardari joined thousands of fans at the National Stadium in Karachi on Wednesday for the start of the Champions Trophy, the first international cricket tournament to be hosted in the country for three decades.
The eight-nation event, which was launched with Pakistan’s Air Force flying over the stadium to mark the occasion, marks the end of Pakistan’s exile in terms of international tournaments and opened with Pakistan, the defending champions, taking on New Zealand.
Pakistan failed to chase the 321 target set by New Zealand in the opening match of the International Cricket Council (ICC) Champions Trophy tournament at the National Stadium in Karachi. The Green Shirts ended their rollercoaster innings with 260 all out.
The stage was set for Team Pakistan in Karachi with an electric atmosphere in the stands at the sold-out National Bank Stadium as it hosted its first ICC tournament since 1996.
However, it was not meant to be as old woes in the form of their death over bowling and a new one with opener Fakhar Zaman suffering a muscle strain hampered their chances in this match.
Skipper Rizwan felt that dew might be a factor later in the day and chose to bowl first after winning the toss, only for the dew to never become a factor in Pakistan’s batting innings.
Pakistan played a mammoth 152 dot-balls in their innings, with their lack of strike rotation coming back to haunt them at the end.
There were cameos by Khushdil and Salman scoring 69 and 42 respectively but they were elipsed by Latham and Young’s centuries earlier in the day. Latham was adjudged player of the match for his 118 not out.
For New Zealand, Will O’Rourke was the pick of the bowlers getting 3 wickets including the skipper Rizwan and opener Saud in the first 10 overs.
Going forward, Pakistan face India on Sunday in a highly anticipated encounter, with the pressure on the Green Shirts to keep their hopes alive in the tournament by beating their arch-rivals.