The opener Usman Khan has been ruled out of the second ODI of the Pakistan tour of New Zealand 2025 due to a hamstring injury.
The 29-year old who made his debut at Napier, sustained the injury while fielding and the scans confirmed a low-grade tear. As a result, he will be unavailable for the second clash of the three-match series.
The right-hand batter was not initially part of Pakistan’s ODI squad for the New Zealand series but was included after the conclusion of the T20I series. He made his debut in first ODI scoring 39 runs off 33 deliveries.
Pakistan suffered a 73-run defeat in the first ODI. After being put into bat, the Kiwis led by Mark Chapman’s second ODI century posted 344/9 in 50 overs at McLean Park.
Chapman inflicted misery upon his favourite opponents once more, slamming a career-best 132 runs off 111 deliveries. A 199-run stand for the fourth wicket between him and Daryl Mitchell revived New Zealand’s after the Pakistan bowlers did well to reduce them 3/50.
Mitchell slammed 76 runs off 84 balls, before Abbas’ blitz steered New Zealand for 344 runs. However, Pakistan looked strong with 249/4 with impressive knocks from Babar Azam and Salman Agha however they went on to lost remaining wickets for 21 runs. Pakistan lost all 10 wickets for 271 runs and suffered a 73 runs.
“The way we started second innings, we went with good intent. When you are near the chase, pressure increases, three-four overs changed the momentum.”
“Pitch was not good early on, difficult to bat on…Chapman played fantastically and put good runs. We need to improve more and take benefit of the toss. We had some new guys in the middle order and it’s difficult because they are playing in challenging conditions,” said Pakistan captain Mohammad Rizwan after the match.
Meanwhile Kiwis skipper Michael Bracewell said that, “I think it was a great game of ODI cricket, lots of ebbs and flows. You can apply some T20 skills that the young players are learning quickly.”
“It’s great to see ODI cricket still alive I guess. (on bowling main quicks early on) You just try use your resources as best as you can, fortunately it paid off. You roll the dice and luckily it came off for me today.”
“(on Abbas) it’s a great sign for domestic cricket that guys coming in and stepping up and playing the way they play in domestic cricket. To stay in the game, keep fighting, that New Zealand spirit and it’s what we re all about,” concluded Michael Bracewell.
The second match of the ODI series will be played on April 02 at Seddon Park.
