New Zealand Beats Pakistan to Win the Tri-Nation Final: The Match, the Series and What It Told Us
On 14 February 2025 New Zealand beat Pakistan by five wickets in Karachi to win a three-team one-day series. It was meant to be a warm-up for the Champions Trophy. This plain-English guide retells the final, the series before it and the difficult year for Pakistan's cricket that followed.
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⚡ The short answer
New Zealand won the final of the three-nation one-day series at the National Stadium, Karachi, on 14 February 2025, beating Pakistan by five wickets with 28 balls to spare. Pakistan, batting first, were bowled out for 242. The tall fast bowler Will O’Rourke took four wickets. Daryl Mitchell and Tom Latham made half-centuries in a calm chase. The series, which also involved South Africa, was arranged as practice for the Champions Trophy that began in the same stadium five days later. It turned out to be an accurate forecast: New Zealand reached that tournament’s final, and Pakistan, the hosts, went out in the first round.
- ✅ Result: New Zealand won by five wickets
- ✅ Pakistan 242 all out; New Zealand 243 for 5
- ✅ Player of the match: Will O’Rourke (4 for 43)
- ✅ Player of the series: Salman Ali Agha (219 runs)
The final, innings by innings
Pakistan bat
Mohammad Rizwan, Pakistan’s captain, won the toss and chose to bat on a pitch expected to be full of runs. Two days earlier, on the same ground, his side had chased 353.
It did not go to plan.
- The openers went early.
- Babar Azam, the side’s best batsman, reached a landmark, his 6,000th run in one-day internationals, in only his 123rd innings, level with the fastest ever. Then he mistimed a shot and was caught. Pakistan were 54 for 3.
- Rizwan and Salman Ali Agha, the pair who had won the previous match, rebuilt with a partnership of 88. Rizwan made 46 and Salman 45.
- Both then fell within a few overs of each other. The innings never recovered its speed.
- The lower order scraped the total to 242, all out with three balls unused.
The damage was done by New Zealand’s fast bowlers, above all Will O’Rourke, who is nearly two metres tall and makes the ball bounce steeply. He took 4 for 43.
Two hundred and forty-two is a decent score on some grounds. On that Karachi pitch, against that batting side, it was forty runs short, and both dressing rooms knew it at the interval.
New Zealand chase
New Zealand never needed to hurry.
- They lost an early wicket, and Pakistan’s fast bowlers created a few chances.
- Daryl Mitchell took control with 57 from 58 balls.
- Tom Latham, the wicketkeeper, made a half-century alongside him.
- The target was reached in the 46th over with five wickets and 28 balls in hand.
| Pakistan | New Zealand | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 242 all out | 243 for 5 |
| Overs | 49.3 | 45.2 |
| Top scores | Rizwan 46, Salman Agha 45 | Mitchell 57, Latham 50-plus |
| Best bowling | — | O’Rourke 4 for 43 |
The series before the final
Three teams each played the other two once. The top two met in the final.
| Date | Venue | Match | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8 February | Lahore | Pakistan v New Zealand | New Zealand won by 78 runs |
| 10 February | Lahore | New Zealand v South Africa | New Zealand won, chasing a total above 300 |
| 12 February | Karachi | Pakistan v South Africa | Pakistan won, chasing 353 |
| 14 February | Karachi | Final: Pakistan v New Zealand | New Zealand won by five wickets |
The match everyone remembers
The game Pakistan’s supporters will recall is not the final. It is the one before it.
South Africa made 352. No Pakistan side had ever chased so many. At 91 for 3 the match seemed gone. Then Rizwan and Salman Ali Agha put on 260 together, each making a century, and Pakistan won with an over to spare. It was the highest successful run chase in the country’s one-day history.
That partnership is why Salman Ali Agha, until then thought of as a useful all-rounder, was named player of the series, and why hopes for the Champions Trophy rose so high in the two days that followed.
What New Zealand showed
New Zealand won all three of their matches, each in a different way: with spin at Lahore, with a big chase against South Africa, and with fast bowling in the final. They did it despite injuries to more than one first-choice player. It was the performance of a side that knew exactly how it wanted to play.
Why the series was held
A dress rehearsal
The Champions Trophy of 2025 was the first world tournament Pakistan had hosted since 1996. Its opening match was set for Karachi on 19 February, Pakistan against New Zealand: the same teams, the same ground, five days after the tri-series final.
The series served three purposes.
- For the players, match practice in local conditions.
- For the grounds. The stadiums in Lahore and Karachi had been largely rebuilt in a few months, with new stands, seats, floodlights and dressing rooms. Work ran so late that there was real doubt whether they would be ready. The tri-series was their test.
- For the security plan, which involved thousands of police and soldiers.
A tournament split in two
The Champions Trophy had a peculiarity. India’s government would not allow its team to travel to Pakistan. After months of argument it was agreed that India would play all its matches in Dubai, and that if India reached the final, the final would be there too. So the host nation’s most important match, against India, was played abroad.
💡 Tip: how one-day cricket works
In a one-day international each side bats once, for a maximum of 50 overs of six balls each. The side batting first sets a total. The side batting second “chases” it. A team is “all out” when ten of its eleven batsmen have been dismissed. “Won by five wickets” means the chasing side reached the target having lost only five batsmen. “Won by 78 runs” means the side batting first bowled the other out, or restricted it, 78 short.
Was the series good preparation?
At the time, the tri-series was presented as ideal practice. Looking back, opinion is divided.
The case that it helped. The players had three hard matches in the conditions they were about to face. The new stadiums were tested under a full crowd. The security plan was rehearsed. And Pakistan’s batsmen proved, in chasing 353, that they could score at the modern rate when they had to.
The case that it hurt.
- Injuries. Pakistan lost a fast bowler to injury in the first match of the series, and were already without a promising young opener hurt on an earlier tour. Neither gap was properly filled.
- Nothing was hidden. Playing New Zealand twice in a week, on the grounds to be used in the tournament, showed the opposition exactly how Pakistan’s bowlers and batsmen meant to play. New Zealand used that knowledge five days later.
- The wrong lesson. The great chase against South Africa persuaded the team’s management that the batting method was sound. The final, and then the tournament, suggested the chase had been the exception.
- Tiredness. Four high-pressure matches in a week, immediately before a world tournament, left little time to rest or to fix what had gone wrong.
Other teams took the opposite approach, arriving late and playing little. India, the eventual champions, played none of their matches in Pakistan at all.
There is no way to prove which view is right. But it is hard to argue that a side which lost twice to the same opponent in a week, and then a third time when it counted, was sharpened by the experience.
What happened next
The Champions Trophy
| Date | Match | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 19 February | Pakistan v New Zealand, Karachi | New Zealand won comfortably |
| 23 February | Pakistan v India, Dubai | India won by six wickets; Virat Kohli made an unbeaten century |
| 27 February | Pakistan v Bangladesh, Rawalpindi | Abandoned because of rain |
Pakistan, the hosts and defending champions, were out of their own tournament inside a week, without a win. New Zealand went on to the final, where they lost to India in Dubai.
So the tri-series had told the truth. The side that beat Pakistan twice in a week in February beat them a third time when it mattered.
The rest of 2025
The months that followed were hard.
- Pakistan toured New Zealand in March and April and lost both the Twenty20 and the one-day series heavily.
- There were changes of coach and, later in the year, of one-day captain.
- At the Asia Cup in September, Pakistan reached the final and lost it to India, in a tournament remembered as much for the two teams’ refusal to shake hands as for the cricket.
2026
At the Twenty20 World Cup in February 2026, India beat Pakistan by 61 runs in Colombo.
Why Pakistan lost the final
Opinions, not facts. These are the points most often made by former players and commentators.
1. A slow middle. Pakistan’s batsmen scored too slowly between the 11th and 40th overs, the long middle stretch of a one-day innings. Modern sides treat 300 as a normal score. Pakistan’s method, built on keeping wickets in hand for a late charge, left them short when the charge did not come.
2. Dependence on a few. When Babar and Rizwan fail, the innings tends to fail. In the final one of them went early and the other got out when set.
3. No answer to bounce. O’Rourke’s height troubled batsmen brought up on low, slow pitches.
4. Spin. New Zealand’s slow bowlers controlled the middle overs throughout the series. Pakistan’s did not.
5. Fielding. Dropped catches and missed run-outs cost perhaps twenty runs a match.
6. Selection. The squad for the Champions Trophy, announced just before the series, was criticised for containing only one specialist spinner and for recalling players on reputation.
The defenders of the team replied that it had just completed the biggest chase in its history, and that one bad day in a final should not be over-read. The Champions Trophy then settled the argument in the critics’ favour.
⚠️ One match is a small sample
Cricket invites sweeping conclusions from single games. The same Pakistan side that was bowled out for 242 on a Friday had chased 353 on the Wednesday. The honest reading of the tri-series is narrower than the headlines suggested at the time: New Zealand were the better-prepared team over a fortnight, and Pakistan’s batting was either brilliant or brittle with little in between.
Why New Zealand keep doing this
There is a puzzle in this story that deserves a few paragraphs. New Zealand has about five million people, fewer than Faisalabad. Cricket is not even its main sport. Pakistan has fifty times the population and a passion for the game that New Zealand cannot match. Yet in recent years New Zealand have beaten Pakistan far more often than not, at home and away.
Observers who have looked at how the two systems work usually point to the same differences.
| New Zealand | Pakistan | |
|---|---|---|
| Selection | A small, stable group of selectors; players given long runs | Frequent changes of selectors, captains and coaches |
| Domestic cricket | Six well-run provincial teams; a clear path upward | A structure redesigned several times in a decade |
| Role clarity | Each player knows his job in the side | Roles shift from series to series |
| Fielding and fitness | Treated as non-negotiable | Improved, but inconsistent |
| Administration | Low-profile board; little political involvement | The board’s chairman is chosen by the prime minister and changes with governments |
| Player pool | Small, so talent is nurtured carefully | Vast, so players are discarded quickly |
The last point is the least obvious and perhaps the most important. A country with few players has to make the most of each one. A country with thousands can always try someone new, and so never has to solve the problem of the player in front of it.
None of this means New Zealand’s players are more gifted. Pakistan has produced more natural match-winners than any country of its means. The difference lies in everything around the talent.
Cricket and politics in Pakistan
This is a site about politics, and Pakistani cricket cannot be separated from it.
The patron. The prime minister is the patron of the Pakistan Cricket Board and in practice chooses its chairman. When the government changes, the chairman usually changes too.
The chairmen. Since 2018 the board has been led in turn by a former diplomat’s nominee, a former captain, a veteran journalist-administrator and, from 2024, a serving federal minister who also holds the interior portfolio. Each brought his own selectors, coaches and domestic structure.
The grounds. Stadiums belong to provincial governments or to the board, and their rebuilding before the 2025 tournament was a matter of national prestige and political credit.
India. Whether the two countries play each other, and where, is decided by governments, not cricket boards. The 2025 Champions Trophy was reshaped around India’s refusal to tour.
The public. A defeat is discussed in Parliament and on every political talk show. A captain’s position can become a question of provincial or party loyalty.
Players and coaches have said, with some weariness, that they would like one thing above all: to be left with the same people in charge for long enough to build something. The tri-series of February 2025 was played under a captain, a coach and a selection panel, none of whom was in the same post a year later.
The players
New Zealand
| Player | In this series |
|---|---|
| Will O’Rourke | Fast bowler in only his second year of international cricket; four wickets in the final |
| Daryl Mitchell | Dependable middle-order batsman; top score in the final |
| Tom Latham | Wicketkeeper-batsman; half-century in the final |
| Kane Williamson | The team’s senior batsman; a century earlier in the series |
| Mitchell Santner | Captain and left-arm spinner |
Pakistan
| Player | In this series |
|---|---|
| Mohammad Rizwan | Captain and wicketkeeper; a century against South Africa, 46 in the final |
| Salman Ali Agha | Player of the series; a century against South Africa, 45 in the final |
| Babar Azam | Passed 6,000 one-day runs in the final |
| Shaheen Shah Afridi, Naseem Shah, Haris Rauf | The fast-bowling attack |
| Fakhar Zaman | Opening batsman, returning to the side |
The ground
The National Stadium in Karachi opened in 1955 and was for decades Pakistan’s fortress. The national side went more than forty years there without losing a Test match. Its seating was rebuilt for the 2025 tournament, and it has since carried a sponsor’s name.
International cricket was absent from Pakistan for most of a decade after gunmen attacked the Sri Lankan team’s bus in Lahore in 2009. Its gradual return, from 2015 onwards, is the background to everything in this article. A three-team series with two of the world’s best sides, followed by a world tournament, would have been unthinkable ten years earlier.
✅ Key point
The tri-series final of February 2025 mattered less for the trophy than for what it revealed. In one week Pakistan produced the best chase in their history and then a flat defeat by a side that simply did the basics better. That pattern, flashes of brilliance without a reliable method, ran through the Champions Trophy, the rest of 2025 and into 2026. New Zealand left with a cup. Pakistan left with a warning they did not have time to act on.
Words used in this article
| Term | Plain meaning |
|---|---|
| One-day international | A match of 50 overs a side between national teams |
| Over | Six balls bowled by one bowler |
| Wicket | The dismissal of a batsman; also the set of stumps |
| Chase | The second innings, in pursuit of a target |
| All out | Ten batsmen dismissed |
| Partnership, stand | The runs two batsmen add together |
| Half-century, century | A score of 50, or of 100 |
| Four for 43 | Four wickets taken while conceding 43 runs |
| Tri-series | A series among three teams |
| Twenty20 | The shortest form: 20 overs a side |
Timeline
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 8 February 2025 | New Zealand beat Pakistan at Lahore |
| 12 February 2025 | Pakistan chase 353 to beat South Africa |
| 14 February 2025 | New Zealand win the final at Karachi |
| 19 February 2025 | Champions Trophy opens; New Zealand beat Pakistan again |
| 23 February 2025 | India beat Pakistan in Dubai |
| 9 March 2025 | India beat New Zealand in the Champions Trophy final |
| March and April 2025 | Pakistan lose both series in New Zealand |
| September 2025 | India beat Pakistan in the Asia Cup final |
| 15 February 2026 | India beat Pakistan at the Twenty20 World Cup |
Cricket and politics are never far apart in Pakistan. For the politics, start with our guide to Pakistan’s politics.
Follow the stories behind the headlines
PoliticsPK explains who is who, how the system works and what changes, without the noise.
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Frequently asked questions
❓ Who won the tri-nation series final in February 2025?
New Zealand, who beat Pakistan by five wickets at the National Stadium, Karachi, on 14 February 2025.
❓ What were the scores?
Pakistan made 242 all out in 49.3 overs. New Zealand replied with 243 for 5 in 45.2 overs.
❓ Who was player of the match?
Will O’Rourke of New Zealand, who took four wickets for 43 runs.
❓ Who was player of the series?
Salman Ali Agha of Pakistan, who scored 219 runs.
❓ Which teams played in the tri-series?
Pakistan, New Zealand and South Africa.
❓ What record did Babar Azam set in the final?
He reached 6,000 runs in one-day internationals in his 123rd innings, equalling the fastest to that mark.
❓ What was Pakistan’s record chase in the series?
They chased 353 to beat South Africa in Karachi on 12 February 2025, their highest successful chase in one-day internationals.
❓ How did Pakistan do in the Champions Trophy that followed?
They lost to New Zealand and India, their third match was rained off, and they were eliminated in the group stage.
❓ Why did India play its Champions Trophy matches in Dubai?
India’s government did not allow its team to travel to Pakistan, so its matches were moved to Dubai under a compromise.
Sources
- ESPNcricinfo, Pakistan v New Zealand, final, Karachi, 14 February 2025 — match page.
- Pakistan Cricket Board, New Zealand, Pakistan and South Africa Tri-nation ODI Series 2024/25 — official match page.
- Wikipedia, “2024–25 Pakistan Tri-Nation Series” — not opened; listed for readers.
- Wisden, New Zealand v Pakistan, 14 February 2025 — scorecard.
- CricTracker, New Zealand v Pakistan, final, 14 February 2025 — scorecard.
- ESPNcricinfo, Pakistan v India, Champions Trophy, Dubai, 23 February 2025 — match page.
