Pakistan began their campaign with a bang after they defeated the Netherlands by 81 runs in the second match of the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023 in India. Despite a significant start to their innings, the Netherlands could not maintain the momentum and kept on losing wickets at regular breaks and were all-out for 205 runs.
Vikramjit Singh, Left-handed opener, and all-rounder Bas de Leede top-scored for their team with 52 and 67 runs respectively.
All of Pakistan’s six bowlers, meanwhile, bagged wickets with Haris Rauf picking three, Hasan Ali getting two, and Shaheen Afridi, Shadab Khan, Mohammad Nawaz, and Iftikhar Ahmed taking one each.
Earlier, Pakistan reached a total of 286 after Babar Azam’s men came with the load of losing three wickets in the first 10 overs but delivered quite a laudable comeback thereafter.
After winning the toss, Scott Edwards chose to bowl first in Hyderabad. Saud Shakeel, a Middle-order batter, hit a half-century in just 37 balls in his World Cup debut while Babar Azam caught out for five runs in 18 balls.
The middle-order duo of Mohammed Rizwan and Shakeel spearheaded their combat whereas Shadab Khan and Mohammed Nawaz played significant roles with the bat later on to take the Green Shirts to a potentially match-winning total.
Shadab Khan, the Pakistani vice-captain, took control of their first innings after the visitors were six wickets down after 37 overs.
Shadab Khan walked into the middle took his time with some deliveries and maintained rotating the strike with some timely boundaries. He got to 22 off 21 deliveries with intense relief. But it was his first six and second from Pakistan’s innings that’s worth admiring.
Meanwhile, Mohammad Nawaz played a helpful inning of 39 off 43 balls.
Asked to take the first strike, Pakistan depended on half-centuries from Mohammad Rizwan (68) and Saud Shakeel (68) to post a stable total on the board. Bas de Leede bagged four wickets for the Netherlands, while Colin Ackermann got two wickets.
