Pakistan played against New Zealand in the final of the 2024-2025 Pakistan Tri-National Series, Pakistan started with the following XI players. The name of these players are:
Fakhar Zaman
Babar Azam
Saud Shakeel
Mohammad Rizwan
Salman Ali Agha
Tayyab Tahir
Khushdil Shah
Faheem Ashraf
Shaheen Shah Afridi
Naseem Shah
Abrar Ahmed
Pakistan decided to bat first after winning the toss, Fakhar Zaman and Baber Azam started their opening partnership which could not be remained for long as Fakhar Zaman was soon out for 10 runs. Babar Azam also only scored 29 runs being run out by Smith.
Muhammad Rizwan scored the top runs of 46 with the partnership of Saud Shakeel who scored only 8 runs. Tayyab Tahir and Salman Agha both scored a good run with 38 and 45 respectively, Khushdil Shah, Faheem Ashraf, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Naseem Shah, and Abrar Ahmed were removed for scoring low .At the end, Pakistan scored 242 runs in 49.3 overs.
The openers of New Zealand Will Young and Devon Conway started the game with a strong response but soon Conway was run out by 5 runs. The innings was maintained by Daryl Mitchell and Kane Williamson.
Each player scored 56 and 57 runs. On the other hand ,Tom Latham scored 56 runs and Glenn Phillips was not out. At the end, New Zealand scored 243 runs out of 44.1 overs and 5 out and won the game.
Naseem Shah was declared Pakistan’s most outstanding bowler who gained 2 wickets for 43 runs. Pakistan lost by five wickets despite showing great effort and New Zealand won the Tri -Series.
Strong partnership and time management is the key to win the game in limited overs and this match has showed this in which Pakistan’s top and middle batsmen played very well but the lower could not played good and on the other hand the New Zealand team won by showing their strong partnership and good time management.
Only the performance of Pakistani bowler Naseem Shah was good but in spite of his performance Pakistan could not won the game and New Zealand achieved the target.