Pakistan opened their World Cup campaign with a comprehensive 81-run win over the Netherlands in Hyderabad on Friday. Even as the batting left a lot to be desired, Babar Azam’s men showed a much-improved performance with their bowling.
Asked to bat first after Netherlands skipper Scott Edwards won the toss, Pakistan team was all out for 286 runs in 49 overs. In reply, the Netherlands were bundled out for 205 runs with nine overs to spare.
Pakistan’s batting display
While most of the Pakistan batsmen failed to make an impact with their batting, only Mohammed Rizwan and Saud Shakeel, both of whom scored 68 runs each, stood tall against the Netherlands bowling attack. At one stage, Pakistan were three wickets down for just 38 runs on board, before both batsmen joined together to resurrect the innings. Rizwan faced 75 deliveries to hit eight boundaries while Shakeel struck nine boundaries while facing 52 deliveries.
The rest of the batsmen, including skipper Babar Azam, were out cheaply. Playing for the first time in front of an Indian crowd, Babar was out for just 5 runs off 18 deliveries. He was caught by Saqib Zulfikar off the bowling of Ackermann. Mohammed Nawaz and Shadab Khan also chipped in with 39 and 32 runs respectively. For the Netherlands, Bas de Leede was the pick of the bowlers who took four wickets for 62 runs in his nine overs spell. Later, he played a crucial role with the bat as well.
Bas de Leede played an important knock for the Netherlands
Apart from him and Vikramjit Singh, none of the Netherlands batsmen seemed comfortable against the strong Pakistan bowling attack. While Leede top scored for his side with 67 runs off 68 deliveries, Singh, who opened the innings, along with Max O ‘Dowd hit 52 runs from 67 balls. Apart from them, Logan van Beek also played an important knock of 28 runs. He faced the same number of balls and hit three boundaries.
For Pakistan, Harris Rauf took three wickets, while Hasan Ali took 2. Other bowlers, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Ifthikhar Ahmed, Mohammed Nawaz, and Shadab Khan took one wicket each.
Meanwhile, fans in India and Pakistan are eagerly waiting as both sides are set to face each other in Ahmedabad on October 14.