Daryl Mitchell celebrates a personal milestone. [Source: AP Photos]
It took New Zealand batter Daryl Mitchell just four deliveries to achieve a batting feat in ICC Champions Trophy 2025 opener against Pakistan in Karachi. Having become only the second No. 4 batter to amass 500 runs in an ICC Cricket World Cup during the previous ICC ODI event, there couldn’t have been a better way in terms of Mitchell achieving milestones.
Replacing captain Kane Williamson (1) in the middle in the ninth over, Mitchell played a couple of dot balls before getting off the mark with a single against Pakistan fast bowler Naseem Shah.
Daryl Mitchell Completes 1,000 Runs Against Pakistan
Mitchell, who ran another single off spinner Abrar Ahmed, completed 1,000 runs against Pakistan across all formats. In doing so, he has become the eighth New Zealand batter to do it. They are:
Batters | Runs | Average |
---|---|---|
Kane Williamson | 3,477 | 54.32 |
Ross Taylor | 2,375 | 46.56 |
Martin Crowe | 1,965 | 50.38 |
Stephen Fleming | 1,755 | 38.15 |
Martin Guptill | 1,729 | 36.02 |
Tom Latham | 1,642 | 33.20 |
Brendon McCullum | 1,358 | 34.82 |
Daryl Mitchell | 1,008 | 45.81 |
NOTE: New Zealand wicket-keeper batter Tom Latham is batting at 20* at the time of writing this piece.
Overall, he is the 108th batter to score 1,000 runs against this opposition in international cricket. Another single in the same over allowed the right-handed batter to surpass India captain Rohit Sharma in this list.
It is to be noted that Pakistan is only the second opposition against whom Mitchell has scored over 1,000 runs. Having played the most against England thus far, the 33-year-old player has 1,293 runs under his belt against them. While Mitchell has scored four centuries and nine half-centuries against England, he has three centuries and five half-centuries against Pakistan.
Mitchell, however, couldn’t cash in on a batting wicket at the National Stadium on Wednesday. Pacer Haris Rauf’s first wicket today, the Kiwi ended up scoring 10 (24) at a strike rate of 41.66. All in all, he has 1,008 runs at an average and strike rate of 45.81 and 103.70 respectively against Pakistan. It is worth mentioning that Mitchell’s strike rate is the highest against Pakistan (min. 250 runs).