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Context is king as Pakistan and New Zealand open pre-Champions Trophy tri-series
A triangular ODI series is something of a curiosity that belongs in a museum more than it does in 2025. Pakistan last hostedone in 2004, and there have been none in the ODI format anywhere since 2019. When this particular series was announced not long ago, it stood out – it is the only ODI tri series in the current FTP.
Pakistan, New Zealand and South Africa will play a truncated version of the classic tri-series, with just one round of matches followed by a final. The schedule was likely squeezed by the SA20 at one end and the Champions Trophy at the other, and it is that upcoming ICC event – the first hosted by Pakistan in nearly three decades – which gives the series context.
While South Africa’s squad is weakened by player commitments at the SA20 and injuries, Pakistan and New Zealand, who take each other on in the opener, have pretty much full-strength sides. Both have named near-identical squads for this series and the Champions Trophy, and had two practice sessions at the rebuilt Gaddafi Stadium, which will officially be inaugurated on Friday, on the eve of the first game.
For each side, it offers the opportunity for precious match practice in conditions where the Champions Trophy will be held in the main (with India’s matches in Dubai). Pakistan and New Zealand will also open the marquee tournament, though that game will take place in Karachi and not Lahore. Both have played exactly nine ODIs each since the end of the 2023 World Cup, and all in very different conditions to this. While Pakistan won each of their three recent ODI series, New Zealand fell short in the one they played in the subcontinent, a 2-0 reversal against Sri Lanka.
However, it’s not as if they are short of match practice in this country. Since December 2022, they have played two Tests, eight ODIs and ten T20Is in Pakistan across four series. On most of those occasions, though, multiple factors meant New Zealand sent in weakened squads, with larger context to build up to. This time, however, there is a multi-team trophy on the line, all while preparing for the second-biggest title in ODI cricket.
It offers the visitors a chance to trial what appears a healthy balance between seam and spin in Pakistan. Captain Mitchell Santner will have Rachin Ravindra, Michael Bracewell and Glenn Phillips for slow bowling company, while they also have a battery of fast bowlers – no fewer than six – in their tri-series squad.
Pakistan appear to have shown their hand slightly more, with just one full-time spinner alongside Salman Ali Agha, their most plausible part-time spin option. There is a bit of tinkering required at the top, where it appears Fakhar Zaman, back in from the cold, will open with Babar Azam, an experiment the PCB are testing ahead of the Champions Trophy. With this their only game before the deadline to make changes to the squad on February 11, there is more riding on it for them than just the eventual outcome of the contest.
Babar Azam is always in the spotlight, but things are different this time. With Saim Ayub’s injury and Abdullah Shafique’s loss of form, ESPNcricinfo understands Pakistan’s former captain is expected to be called upon to open the batting to provide stability up top. He has, with polarising effect, performed this role in T20 cricket for several years, and more recently stood in as Test opener in Cape Town, scoring a half-century in each innings. In ODIs, however, all but 14 of his innings have come at three, and as he looks to navigate his way out of a difficult run of form, a change of position in his most prolific format will guarantee all eyes on him.
Lockie Ferguson has not played ODI cricket since the tail-end of 2023, but with Pakistan also naming four seamers in their squad, this may be a series where express pace is a factor. Fresh off a respectable showing in the ILT20, where he places among the top-ten wicket-takers, the 33-year-old Ferguson is the oldest fast bowler across all three sides this tri-series, but also the quickest. Against a makeshift Pakistan opening pair and, in Saud Shakeel and Mohammad Rizwan, middle-order players more accomplished against spin than high pace, Ferguson’s extra heat presents a locus of vulnerability for Pakistan, and a point of difference for New Zealand.
Ayub, recovering from an ankle injury, is out of the series and the Champions Trophy. Pakistan are expected to open with Fakhar and Babar, with three premier seam bowlers and Abrar Ahmed as lone frontline spinner. The middle order will see some rotation over the series.
Pakistan (likely) Fakhar Zaman, Babar Azam, Kamran Ghulam, Mohammad Rizwan (capt, wk), Tayyab Tahir/Saud Shakeel, Salman Agha, Khushdil Shah, Shaheen Afridi, Naseem Shah, Haris Rauf, Abrar Ahmed
New Zealand have two opportunities to work out their best side here before the deadline for the Champions Trophy squads shuts. The conditions would suggest three fast bowlers at a minimum. With all of New Zealand’s spinners also handy batters, balance of the side is not much of an issue.
New Zealand (possible) Devon Conway, Will Young, Rachin Ravindra, Kane Williamson, Daryl Mitchell, Tom Latham (wk), Glenn Phillips/Michael Bracewell, Mitchell Santner (capt), Lockie Ferguson, Matt Henry, Will O’Rourke
An overnight explosion at the US embassy in Oslo may have been an act of terrorism, Norway’s police have said.
The embassy in the Norwegian capital sustained minor damage after the blast in the early hours of Sunday – but no-one was injured.
“One of the hypotheses is that it is an act of terrorism, but we are not completely locked into it,” Frode Larsen, the head of police joint investigation and intelligence unit, told Norway’s public broadcaster NRK.
Norwegian authorities say they are in contact with US diplomats, and an investigation into the incident is now under way. US diplomats have not commented.
Speaking to NRK later on Sunday, Larsen stressed that “we have to be open to the possibility that there may be other causes behind what has happened”.
In an earlier statement, Norway’s police said that “large resources” were sent to the area around the US embassy at about 01:00 local time on Sunday (00:00 GMT).
“The police are in dialogue with the embassy and no injuries have been reported,” the statement added.
Michael Dellemyr, who is leading the police response, told NRK that the explosion was at the public entrance to the building.
He said police officers had conducted searches in the area around the embassy in the Morgedalsvegen district of Oslo, about 7km (4 miles) outside the city centre.
He said the police had also issued an appeal for information from anyone who may have seen or heard anything about the incident.
Photos posted on social media later showed shattered glass in the snow outside the entrance to the consular section of the building, cracks in a glass door as well as dark marks on a tiled floor.
Norwegian authorities described the incident as “unacceptable”, with Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide stressing that “the security of diplomatic missions is very important to us”.
He added that he had contacted US embassy chargé d’affaires Eric Meyer regarding Sunday’s incident.
[BBC]
Latest News
Five in five! Brett Randell ‘blown away’ after blowing Northern Districts away in landmark spell
Central Districts fast bowler Brett Randell has created history by becoming the first bowler in the history of first-class cricket to pick up five wickets in five balls. He recorded the feat on day two of a Plunkett Shield game against Northern Districts in Napier on Sunday.
In a spell from hell, Randell ran through the Northern Districts top-order, as they slipped from 4 for no loss to 9 for 5 in the space of five Randell deliveries.
Randell started the slide with the last ball of his second over when he removed opener Henry Cooper with a peach of an in-dipper that swung in late and crashed into Cooper’s off pole, the batter having shouldered arms.
With the first ball of his next over, Randell went around the wicket to Jeet Raval, and left his stumps in a mess. Randell then claimed a hat-trick with Joe Carter caught behind, though the batter looked displeased with the decision. There was no doubt with his fourth wicket when Robert O’Donnell edged Randell’s outswinger to Curtis Heaphy in the slips.
Randell then added a fifth wicket in five balls to his tally when Kristian Clarke flirted at a delivery well outside off, got a thin inside-edge with the ball bouncing back onto his stumps and disturbing his leg bail. Randell’s bowling figures at this stage read a barely believable 2.4-1-2-5. Ben Pomare denied Randell a sixth wicket in six, but history had already been made by then.
Soon after, Randell also became the first to take six wickets in eight balls in first-class cricket
“I’m pretty blown away. The high was pretty crazy, it was like a pinch-me moment,” Randell said after his feat. “I was trying to stay level-headed and keep putting the ball in the same area and then after the actual hat-trick, just the same things — trying to put the ball in the same area.
“It gets drummed into us a lot that we don’t want to go searching for wickets, so I was trying to just keep bowling the same ball, and our ‘Plan A’ that we’d talked about, and it came off.
“I had no idea that it was the first time it [five wickets in five balls in first-class cricket] had happened in the world, it’s seriously cool. I mean, I don’t really have any words at the moment, to be honest. I’ll take it.”
Randell needed just 3.5 overs to complete his seven-wicket haul, adding the wickets of Pomare and Scott Kuggeleijn. He finished with career-best figures of 7 for 25 in 11 overs. Northern Districts were skittled for just 82 and were asked to follow-on after Central Districts had scored 373 in their first innings.
While Randell is the first bowler in first-class cricket to pick five in five, the feat has been achieved in T20 cricket before by Curtis Campher, who took five in five while playing for Munster Reds against North-West Warriors in the Inter-Provincial T20 Trophy in Dublin.
Zimbabwe Women allrounder Kelis Ndhlovu had also picked up five wickets in five balls for Zimbabwe U-19 against Eagles Women in the domestic T20 tournament in 2024.
As it turns out, Randell may not have played had the seniors been available. Central Districts’ New Zealand bowlers Ajaz Patel (calf) and Blair Tickner (ankle) were unavailable for selection because of injuries. Two other contracted players, Tyler Annand and Joey Field, were also unavailable for selection.
[Cricinfo]
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