The ICC Champions Trophy 2025 is a tournament that will be held in Pakistan and Dubai. It will start from 19th February 2025 in Karachi. The first match of the tournament will be Pakistan vs New Zealand. Pakistan as the host country gets the first match of the tournament and their match against New Zealand will set the tone for the ICC Champions Trophy. The match will be played in Karachi. In this match it will be the fast bowling of Pakistan against the power packed batting of New Zealand. The left handed openers of New Zealand will be up against Shaheen Shah Afridi and Naseem Shah.
Let’s look at this match in more details
Pakistan vs New Zealand (Pak vs NZ) Team Form and Recent Performances
Pakistan
The Pakistan team recently played a tri series in which they played 3 Matches. They were up against New Zealand and South Africa. They won 1 match against South Africa and lost the 2 Matches that they had against New Zealand. This is crucial ahead of their important ICC Champions Trophy clash. Their key players are the captain Mohammed Rizwan, Babar Azam, Shaheen Shah Afridi and Naseem Shah. Pakistan have not been able to reach the semi finals in the last 2 ICC tournaments which were the 2023 ICC ODI World Cup and the 2024 ICC T20I World Cup.
New Zealand
New Zealand have been a very good ODI side. Their recent Results in Pakistan where they won all their 3 Matches to win the tri series will give them a lot of confidence. New Zealand have always been a force in ICC tournaments. They reached the semi final of the 2023 ICC ODI World Cup. They were also In the final of the 2021 T20I World Cup. Their batters step up in big ICC tournaments and their fielding is their strongest suit. Their weakness is the fact that they are not able to win the big knockout matches.
Pakistan vs New Zealand (Pak vs NZ) Head to Head
New Zealand and Pakistan have played a total of 117 ODIs against each other. Pakistan have won 61 Matches and New Zealand have won 52 Matches. In their last 5 ODIs, New Zealand have won 2 ODIs and Pakistan have won 3 Matches.
Pakistan vs New Zealand (Pak vs NZ) Pitch Report and Toss Predictions
The match will be at Karachi. This stadium has recently hosted the tri series featuring Pakistan. Based on those matches the pitch for the match on the 19th would be a good batting pitch. There will be some help for the fast bowlers in the first 10 overs. The weather is expected to be hot with no rain during the match. The toss becomes very important because the captain who wins the toss will decide to bowl first. The reason is there will be dew in the second innings which will help the batters while chasing.
Pakistan vs New Zealand Key Players to Watch Out For
Pakistan
The batter that will be the most to watch out for in the Pakistan team is Mohammed Rizwan the captain. He recently hit a brilliant century to give Pakistan the win against South Africa. He has the capability of playing the long innings.
The bowler that could help Pakistan the most is Haris Rauf. Haris Rauf is one of the best bowlers to bowl in the middle overs when the batters would look to step up the scoring rate. He could take wickets and stem the flow of runs.
Pakistan has a few X factor players but the one who will scare the other teams is Fakhar Zaman. Fakhar Zaman has time and again shown that he can win a match for Pakistan single handedly. He loves hitting hundreds and that too at a strike rate of over 100.
New Zealand
Kane Williamson is the batter who is the one to watch out for. He recently smashed a brilliant 133 not out to help New Zealand beat South Africa. Kane Williamson has been the best batter for New Zealand for over a decade.
William ORourke is a young bowler who has made a name for himself. He will look to have a defining tournament. He picked 4 wickets in the final of the tri series against Pakistan.
Glenn Phillips is the X factor player that New Zealand has. Glenn Phillips is a player that is very good in all the 3 aspects of the sport. He is one of the Top 3 fielders in the world, he can also bowl off spin and take wickets. With the bat , Glenn Phillips can hit the ball a long way and bat at a strike rate close to 125.
Pakistan vs New Zealand Betting Odds on 12Bet
The Betting Odds for the match favours Pakistan as they have Odds of 1.73 and New Zealand has Odds of 2.12.
The Odds for the toss are 1.91 for both Pakistan and New Zealand. The importance of winning the toss at Karachi is massive as it can ensure winning the match.
The top batter for Pakistan according to Betting Odds is Babar Azam at 3.90. The top batter for New Zealand is Kane Williamson at 4.00.
The top bowler for Pakistan will be Saheen Afridi as he has Odds of 3.75. The top bowler for New Zealand will be Matt Henry as he has Odds of 3.50.
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The Winner of the Match based on form and conditions is favoured to be Pakistan. The match will be played in Karachi and Pakistan will play well on their home ground. The Players likely to be the top run getter is Babar Azam and the top Wicket taker is Matt Henry. During Live Betting the things to look out for include runs every over, scores of the batters and the number of wickets taken.
This is the first match of the ICC Champions Trophy 2025. This match will be played in Karachi, Pakistan. Pakistan as the home team have the advantage. Everyone is advised to bet responsibly and look at every detail before making bets.
