Glenn Phillips sends Mohammad Rizwan packing with flying catch, then gives scare to Babar Azam in Champions Trophy
Glenn Phillips flew to his left to take a stunning one-handed catch to dismiss Pakistan captain Mohammad Rizwan in the Champions Trophy 2025 opener.
Glenn Phillips and flying catches is a match made in heaven, or we should perhaps say, on the cricket field. The New Zealand cricketer has made acrobatic catches at backward point as regular as traffic jams in Bengaluru on Monday evening. He wakes up, stands at backward point, waits for the batter to cut a ball from the middle of his bat, flies to either his left or right (yes, he is equally good on both sides) and sticks his hand out to pluck the ball out of thin air. That's it, simple! Oh, he doesn't forget to stand still and pose with a sly expression as if he always knew. He perhaps does.
In the Champions Trophy opener between Pakistan and New Zealand in Karachi, Phillips flew to his left to grab a one-handed stunner to send back Pakistan captain Mohammad Rizwan. All Rizwan did wrong was to hit it close to Phillips. Other than that, he had done everything right in putting away the short delivery outside off stump by Will O'Rourke in the last ball of the powerplay. It was flush off the middle of the bat and was heading to only one destination -- the boundary but Phillips is a different beast on the field. He acted as the biggest roadblock and converted a probable boundary into a wicket with his sheer fielding skills and fitness.
Rizwan had no choice but to take the long walk back to the pavilion with disbelief written all over his face.
A few overs later, Phillips again flew to his left to successfully stop a Babar Azam square cut, but thankfully, it was off the ground for the former Pakistan captain. Babar pointed his bat towards Phillips in an acknowledgement of his fielding skills.
Earlier, Will Young and Tom Latham hit sparkling centuries to guide New Zealand to 320-5. Tom Latham hit an unbeaten 104-ball 118 while opener Young scored 107 from 113 balls as New Zealand -- sent in to bat by Pakistan -- made the most of a flat National Stadium pitch.
Young and Latham revived the innings from 73-3 with a 118-run fourth wicket stand, helping their team overcome the early loss of Devon Conway (10), Kane Williamson (1) and Daryl Mitchell (10).
Young hit 12 boundaries and a six in his fourth one-day international century before holing out to Naseem Shah in the 38th over.
Latham and Glenn Phillips, who made an aggressive 39-ball 61, gave the innings more impetus as New Zealand smashed 113 in the last 10 overs and 64 in the last five.
Latham hit 10 boundaries and three sixes in his eighth one-day hundred, while Phillips's robust knock had four sixes and three boundaries.
Fast bowler Naseem Shah was the best Pakistan bowler with 2-63 but fellow pacers Haris Rauf finished with 2-83 and Shaheen Afridi conceded 68 in 10 wicket-less overs each.
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