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After reaching the finals of the ongoing ICC Champions Trophy 2025 on Wednesday, New Zealand opener Rachin Ravindra spoke about the partnership built with right-hand batter Will Young and former skipper Kane Williamson.
Ravindra built a partnership of 48 runs from 47 balls for the opening wicket. Following that, he, along with Williamson, built a marvelous partnership of 164 runs in 154 balls for the second wicket. Speaking at the post-match presentation, the left-hand batter said it was "nice" to build a partnership with both batters. The 25-year-old player went on to praise Williamson for his acceleration. "It was nice to build a partnership first with Youngy (Will Young) and then Kane," he said post-game. "That is what helped me the most, being able to work with the guys in the team. Kane started accelerating so nicely," Rachin Ravindra said after the match as quoted by ICC. New Zealand set a huge target in their ICC Champions Trophy semi-final against South Africa, which would prove too tricky to chase. Their 362 runs became a new high mark for totals in Champions Trophy matches played in Lahore, moving past Australia's score (356/5) from earlier in the tournament. But in doing so, an even greater record was etched into the history books. Kiwi legend Kane Williamson became just the 16th player of all time to reach 19,000 international runs and the first New Zealander to do so. That milestone came early in an innings that would become his 48th century, across all formats, and his 15th in One-Day Internationals. Williamson's career as a run-scorer has been emphatic, reaching the mark of 19,000 international runs, the fourth-fastest of all time (440 innings), behind only Virat Kohli (399), Sachin Tendulkar (432) and Brian Lara (433). The 34-year-old proved yet again he's still at the peak of his powers, scoring 102 runs from 94 balls, highlighted by a mix of perfectly-timed traditional strokes and expansive new-age shots that both proved equally as effective. He came to the crease with the Kiwis at 48/1 in the eighth over and built a win-assisting partnership of 164 runs for the second wicket with Rachin Ravindra, who also made it to three figures, scoring 108 off 101 balls. Further, Ravindra admitted that before looking ahead to the Final, they will take a moment to savour what's already been achieved at the Champions Trophy. "We'll reflect on today and chill out a bit tonight and then once we get to Dubai, start switching on," the southpaw concluded. (ANI)
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