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In the opening Champions Trophy 2025 match between New Zealand and Pakistan in Karachi, Shaheen Shah Afridi was seen getting involved in a verbal altercation with his captain Mohammad Rizwan. After the decent start, Pakistan failed to breach the duo of Will Young and Tom Latham in middle overs which handed Glenn Phillips the opportunity to come heavily on the defending champions. Taking advantage of Pakistan’s lackluster bowling, the Kiwi side delivered a mammoth target of 321 runs to the hosts. Shaheen Shah Afridi, whose responsibility was to spearhead Pakistan’s bowling efficiently, went for 68 runs in his 10 overs.
The incident took place in the 47th over when Tom Latham mistimed a ball from Shaheen which went for the boundary through the backward point. The boundary irked the Pakistan skipper and he was seen passing a remark towards Shaheen. However, the lanky pacer refused to capitulate and gave it back to the wicketkeeper batter. Before Shaheen, Rizwan looked unhappy with Abrar Ahmed, who concluded his spell after splurging 16 runs in his last over. During the over, the spinner was hit for a maximum following which Rizwan advised Abrar how to tackle the Kiwi but the spin wizard failed to implement the plan and got struck for two boundaries in the next three deliveries.
Pakistan top-order collapses while chasing the mammoth total
Following the giant total of 321, the Men in Green saw the new opening pair of Babar Azam and Saud Shakeel. However, Shakeel failed to hold his nerves under pressure and threw his wicket at his score of six against Will O’Rourke. Skipper Rizwan lacked confidence as he also followed Shakil to the dugout after scoring only three runs off 14 balls.
Fakhar Zaman also lost his wicket scoring 24(41) runs as Pakistan were reduced to 69/3 after 20.5 overs. Currently, Babar Azam is taking the innings further along with Salman Ali Agha as Pakistan look to get closer to the target.
