Cricket: Lack of meaningful partnerships cost Black Caps in first ODI against Pakistan, says Tom Latham

Tom Latham was dismissed on 42 in the Black Caps loss to Pakistan in the first ODI. Photo / AP

For moments in the first ODI against Pakistan, it looked like the Black Caps were on track after being sent into bat by the hosts.

After getting off to a terrible start in Karachi following Devon Conway’s dismissal in the first over, the Black Caps had a few partnerships that got going, with several of their batsmen laying the foundations for their innings. However, any time it looked like the batsmen might have settled in, partnerships were broken up before being able to do too much damage on the scoreboard. Every time things started to trend in the right direction for the Kiwis, Pakistan struck – limiting the New Zealanders to 255-9 from their allotted overs.

The hosts chased that down with six wickets and 11 balls to spare, led by half-centuries from Mohammad Rizwan (77 not out), Babar Azam (66) and Fakhar Zaman (56).

“When we threatened for a big partnership, we managed to lose wickets at crucial times so we weren’t able to extend that death phase towards the back end with the bat,” Black Caps wicketkeeper Tom Latham said following the defeat.

“If we were able to get close to that 300 mark, maybe things would’ve been different.

“If you want to post a score of around 300, you need those big partnerships and, for us, we didn’t quite do things for long enough tonight with the bat.”

The Black Caps had eight batsmen score in double figures for the match, but none were able to make the most of their starts, with middle-order batsmen Michael Bracewell (43) and Latham (42) being the pick of the bunch.

A pair of rather inexperienced bowlers caused the most trouble for the visitors, with 19-year-old Naseem Shah finishing with 5-57 from his 10 overs in just his fourth ODI, while leg spinner Usama Mir finished with 2-42 in his ODI debut.

“(Mir) bowled really well,” Latham said. “A tall leg spinner that bowls at a decent pace and managed to get something out of the surface. I think, for him, I’m sure he’ll be really happy with how he went on debut and I’m sure we’ll be seeing a little bit more of him this series.

After the sides played two tests on the same ground before the first ODI, Latham credited both bowling attacks but said the result was something his side needed to learn from ahead of Wednesday night’s second ODI.

“The fight that we showed with the ball was really good, to keep pushing that run rate up, but credit to the way Rizwan, Babar and Haris (Sohail) came out and played. I thought they played exceptionally well in that situation.

“For us, it’s (about) trying to learn game to game and hopefully we can take those experiences from tonight into the next game on Wednesday.”