"Haris bowled 6-8 overs a couple of days ago, and bowled a fair bit yesterday too," Rizwan said at the captain's press conference on the eve of the tournament. "He's bowling with full rhythm today, too. He's also putting work in the gym and isn't complaining of any pains. We think he's fully fit."

Rauf sustained a muscular sprain in his chest while bowling in the opening game of the tri-series against New Zealand on February 8, and was in a race against time to be fit for the start of the tournament. He did not play the remainder of the series, though ESPNcricinfo understands that was more out of an abundance of caution than an indicator of the injury's severity.

After the press conference, Rauf was seen bowling in the nets during Pakistan's final practice session before the tournament at the National Stadium. It clears Pakistan up to play what they view as their first-choice bowling lineup, one that features Shaheen Afridi, Naseem Shah and Rauf. The three played together in an attack that ultimately ended up on the wrong side of a result against New Zealand in the opener of the tri-series. They play the same side tomorrow in the Champions Trophy curtain-raiser as Pakistan prepare to host their first ICC tournament since 1996.

"We suffered for 10 years when no side came here," Rizwan said. "But Pakistan still produced solid results. So we have no doubts about our ability."

However, it is hard to escape the idea that Pakistan go into their first game as relative underdogs. New Zealand beat them twice in the tri-series, going unbeaten across the tournament to lift the title. They went on to demonstrate their all-round ability, defending a total against Pakistan in one game before easing to two chases in games against South Africa and Pakistan. At the same time, they brushed aside injuries to fast bowlers Lockie Ferguson and Ben Sears, retaining their fast-bowling threat, while reigning Pakistan in through the middle overs with a varied array of spinners.

"There are ups and downs and certain deficiencies in our side," Rizwan said. "We are aware we need to bring about certain improvements in our professionalism and consistency.

"We tried to learn from the tri-series, which is why we batted first in the final to work out where our weaknesses lie. We used that series as a training experience. We hope we've learned enough to cover for those weaknesses tomorrow."

But along with the usual cheery optimism, Rizwan's statements were laced with a kind of naked hunger he has rarely let slip in the past. Wearing his religion on his sleeve, he tends to resign himself to "the will of Allah" as he often says. It can take the pressure off, a valuable skill for a Pakistan captain, but today, Rizwan seemed to teeter on the edge of fantasising how much he wanted to win an ICC event, and how good it would be to win this one at home.

"We've come so close a few times," he said. "We need to work out how to get that extra one per cent to win those big matches. No one can guarantee that success, and we're still in search of that final step where we lose big games or tournaments.

"Every player is desperate for this title. And we're doing everything we can to work out how to win. I don't think any country works as hard as we do."

It's uncommon to hear Rizwan speak with that kind of edge. Soon enough, he was back to his usual gregarious self, talking about how "all 15 players were captains" and the value of team performances over individual brilliance. But then again, perhaps that is the "extra one per cent" Pakistan, and Rizwan, are so desperately hunting for.

Glenn Phillips and Michael Bracewell bowl spin to him, and Ravindra's signature flamboyance is on full display. He backs away and clears his front leg, carving a glorious lofted cover drive. When one is tossed up and overpitched, he unleashes an on drive; but for the nets, it was comfortably clearing the boundary.

When Ravindra was initially hit, there were fears of a much more damaging injury. His legs buckled from underneath him as he stared at the ground, dazed and bleeding profusely. He received lengthy treatment as he lay prone with a stretcher brought on, and warm empathic applause rippled as he was gingerly led off the outfield.

But every update that came from the New Zealand camp in the incident's wake was more optimistic than the last. He hadn't been concussed, he hadn't lost consciousness, there was no damage to his eyes, nose or teeth. A "chirpy character", Kane Williamson called him, his personality was largely back to normal by New Zealand's next game, but they weren't going to take any chances with him.

"Rachin will train tonight and we'll get a bit more of an indication of how he's going," Latham had said just moments earlier. "His recovery's going good, but just need to make sure since it was a pretty nasty injury. When it's a head injury you just need to make sure things are all right, so just going through the protocols he needs to go through and we'll wait and see."

In the fortnight since New Zealand have been in Pakistan, they have taken such setbacks in their stride. This is the side that, most famously, is greater than the sum of its parts. Devon Conway took Ravindra's place for the remainder of the tri-series; he scored 97 and 48 as they won the trophy. In this time, Lockie Ferguson and Ben Sears also became unavailable, but no bother; Nathan Smith and Jacob Duffy replaced them without any apparent hardship. Kyle Jamieson will not be available tomorrow but is on his way as Ferguson's Champions Trophy replacement, and New Zealand simply chug along.

"It's about adapting to conditions and surfaces as best we can," Latham said. "The surface we played on here against Pakistan looked slightly different to the one Pakistan played on against South Africa. We'll have a look at what the wicket's like today but it's about adapting as best we can. We've played three games here and a warm-up game, so guys are reasonably familiar with conditions and it's about playing our brand to the best of our ability."

New Zealand have not so much treated the last ten days as a dry run as a platform to showcase their repertoire. They won a game by consolidating with the top order and exploding at the death. In the game against South Africa, they demonstrated their quality in pursuit of 304, Williamson leading a cruise of a chase. In the final, the pace and spin attacks combined to asphyxiate Pakistan for a below-par total, the outcome never in doubt. They won three games in three different ways with just about everyone taking turns to shine.

"It's nice to be performing," Latham said. "Throughout the tri-series and the warm-up game, we're fortunate everyone within the squad has had some time with the ball or bat. Nice that we've been playing well through the tri-series. We were put under pressure in all three games and we've obviously managed to overcome that and come out on the right side. We've got the results but at the same time, it's nice we've been able to overcome that pressure which will hopefully hold us in good stead."

By now, the spinners have had their turn, and Jacob Duffy and Will O'Rourke are having a go. Ravindra stands back, well away from the stumps. He lingers by the corner, watching intently, perhaps acclimatising himself to the pace from that angle without putting himself in harm's way. A short while later, he emerges from the nets, thanking the net bowlers before having a long chat with Tim Southee, here in Pakistan as an ICC ambassador, before disappearing into the dressing room.

He emerges half an hour later, helmet gone and ball in hand, but only uses it for throwdowns rather than the usual left-arm orthodox. Conway, Williamson and bowling coach Shane Jurgensen huddle around him and another lengthy conversation follows. Evidently, if New Zealand are to play him, they want to make absolutely sure he's all right to take the field.

And if they don't, they've shown they can cope just fine, too.

Zimbabwe 246 for 1 (Curran 118*, Ervine 69*, Bennett 48) beat Ireland 240 for 6 (Balbirnie 64, Tucker 61, Tector 51, Ngarava 2-42, Gwandu 2-44) by nine wickets

Curran played his shots fearlessly from ball one - his attempted flick off that ball flew away off the leading edge, but it didn't discourage him from cutting the next ball for four. Mark Adair, who bowled that first over, was on the receiving end again in the fifth as Curran and Bennett hit him for three fours.

There were middled pulls, edged slashes, and swipes down the ground as the openers hit Ireland's bowlers off their lengths. Curran's scooped four off Graham Hume in the eighth over was a highlight. From overs five to ten, Zimbabwe hit 12 fours while scoring 60 runs off 36 balls. They finished the first powerplay at 77 for 0 with Curran batting on 54.

The introduction of spin and a 30-minute rain interruption did not break the flow of the batters or affect the conditions. If anything, the pitch got even better for batting.

Bennett fell to Hume, against the run of play, in the 20th over. He missed the flick, got hit on the pad, and was given out lbw despite height seeming to be an issue on replay. DRS is not available for the series, so Bennett had to walk.

Ervine hit a four and a six within his first ten balls. The four was off a length ball from Hume that he directed through the slips with a tap on its head, and the six an effortless flick off Andy McBrine. The run flow was constant as Zimbabwe cruised to 151 for 1 in 25 overs.

McBrine tried to buy wickets by bowling slower and fuller but that didn't bring any reward as the game kept slipping away from Ireland, with Ervine chipping him over cover and flicking him over midwicket for successive fours in the 28th over. His flowing on-drive for six off Harry Tector in the 33rd was even better, and arguably the shot of the day. He brought up his fifty and Zimbabwe's 200 soon after with a single to long-on.

Meanwhile, Curran coasted towards his hundred. His 10th boundary came off his 40th ball, his 11th off his 65th - when he was on 66 - and his 12th off his 127th - with his score now 108*. He went from 80 to 100 via 18 singles and a two, and even played out a maiden on 99, before bringing up the maiden hundred off his 120th ball, much to his delight and that of his team-mates and the fans in attendance.

In the end, the hosts rushed to victory in the 39th over to complete their first series win of this home summer.

Sent in to bat, Ireland started cautiously in the hope of seeing off the new ball under cloudy skies. Blessing Muzarabani and Richard Ngarava bowled Test-match lengths and challenged the outside edge regularly. Getting beaten by Muzarabani twice in the sixth over didn't stop Paul Stirling from trying to take another chance off Ngarava in the seventh. He saw width and tried slashing the ball up and over but lobbed it straight to cover. Balbirnie, his partner, finished the first powerplay on 12 off 40 balls, with Ireland 26 for 1.

Gwandu, who came on in the 12th over, began by overstepping and conceded seven off two attempts at his first legal ball, but beat Curtis Campher on the outside edge two balls later. In the next over, he beat Campher on the cut with extra bounce before rushing him on the pull to have him caught at midwicket.

Tector joined Balbirnie in the 14th over with Ireland 42 for 2. They put on 86 for the third wicket, hitting four fours and two sixes along the way, but took 115 balls to do so. Balbirnie was dropped on 42 in the 29th over and reached fifty off 87 in the 31st. He brought up his first six with a slog-sweep off Wellington Masakadza, but fell next ball when he miscued the same shot to deep midwicket. It left Ireland 128 for 3 in the 33rd over with their run rate still under four.

Sikandar Raza bowled quick and varied his lines and lengths in a ten-over spell without a break. He kept Tector quiet after Balbirnie's dismissal as the batter looked for boundary options. Ngarava was the beneficiary of Tector's attempts as he miscued a pull to midwicket the ball after reaching an 83-ball fifty.

After Gwandu found extra bounce to nick off George Dockrell cheaply, Adair joined Tucker to put on 57 for the sixth wicket in 52 balls. Tucker's fifty, which came off 44 balls, was the quickest of the innings. However, none of the last ten overs went for more than ten runs or more than one boundary.

Mumbai Indians 122 for 5 (Sciver-Brunt 57, Kerr 19, Gautam 2-15, Mishra 2-40 ) beat Gujarat Giants 120 (Deol 32, Gautam 20, Matthews 3-16, Kerr 2-22) by five wickets

There was an air of inevitability right from the time a beaming Harmanpreet Kaur won the toss and elected to bowl in Mumbai Indians' second match of WPL 2025 against Gujarat Giants. Teams chasing had won every single game so far this season. Couple that with Mumbai's 4-0 record against Giants coming into this match and odds were stacked heavily in Mumbai's favour.

And the game panned out accordingly.

She finished with 57 off 39 balls as Mumbai chased down the target by five wickets and 23 balls to spare. The win not only helped Mumbai open their account in WPL 2025, but also extended their lead over Giants to 5-0. Giants are now the only side in the tournament to not have a single win against a particular team.

Giants' powerplay malfunction

Harmanpreet spoke at the toss about capitalising in the first few overs before the dew set in. She went pace from both ends up top and the move paid dividend with Sciver-Brunt accounting for Beth Mooney, who sliced a simple catch to Sanskriti Gupta at backward point in the second over.

Shabnim Ismail then got rid of Laura Woolvardt, whose lofted drive could only go as far as S Sajana stationed perfectly at deep cover. That reduced Giants to 14 for 2, which four balls later became 16 for 3 when Matthews sent back D Hemalatha whose across-the-line heave was caught wonderfully by Kerr sprinting to her left from deep midwicket.

Ashleigh Gardner, Giants' wrecker-in-chief in the first two matches, started fluently again striking a four and six but was undone by a Sciver-Brunt slower delivery which she mistimed to Sajana at deep midwicket.

At 28 for 4 after six overs, Giants couldn't have asked for a worse start. This was their third-lowest powerplay score in the WPL and comfortably the lowest for any team this season. What also hurt Giants were the sheer number of dot balls at the start. Twenty-six of the 36 balls in the powerplay were dots, the joint-most in WPL history.

Deol fights, no one else does

It might be a case of Giants worrying about the dew later on or just them not trusting their defence enough that despite the fall of wickets, the batters continued going for their shots. Deandra Dottin got going with a reverse sweep, but a wild mow across the line off Kerr brought about her downfall, with Yastika Bhatia executing a quick stumping.

Kashvee Gautam, like many of her team-mates, started strong smashing debutant Parul Sisodia for two fours and then lifted Ismail for a six over long-on, but like the others, flattered to deceive edging Matthews behind.

But the wickets continued to fall at the other end and when Deol departed with the score on 103 for 8 in the 17th over, the end was nigh. However, Sayali Satghare and Priya Mishra ensured that Giants played out their full quota of 20 overs.

For Mumbai, Matthews was miserly in her four-over spell going for just 16. She bowled 16 dot balls in her spell, as did Sciver-Brunt while 19 of the 24 balls that Ismail bowled were dots.

Sciver-Brunt's flawless fifty in MI's first win

Coming into the tournament, there were questions raised on Sciver-Brunt's form considering she had a relatively quiet Ashes. In a matter of two innings, she's brushed aside the doubters.

A 121-chase was never going to be daunting. Matthews started fluently, striking three fours but ended up smashing a rank long-hop from Tanuja Kanwar straight to Deol at square leg. If Giants were entertaining any thoughts of a collapse, Sciver-Brunt shut that down quickly.

She got going with a fierce pull first ball and it was one-way traffic thereon. Dottin was crashed through point before Priya Mishra was pulled through square leg twice in three balls. While Bhatia fell mistiming Mishra to long-on and Harmanpreet was trapped in front by Kashvee, Sciver-Brunt stood like an immovable force.

It was not just power but also precision and the ability to find gaps at will that kept Sciver-Brunt going. She added a 45-run stand with Kerr off 38 balls to take Mumbai closer. She took 34 balls to collect her fifty before falling just seven runs shy of the target. G Kamalini, on debut, struck her first ball for four while Sajana finished the game by depositing Dottin over mid-off to give Mumbai their first win of WPL 2025.

The win has taken Mumbai to second place on the points table while Giants' NRR has taken a hit, though they are in third place.