By 
Pakistan registered their first victory in the ICC T20 World Cup, thrashing the Netherlands by six wickets with 37 balls to spare in their Group 2 match of the Super 12 stage at the Perth Stadium on Sunday.
Pakistan restricted the Netherlands to 91/9 in their allotted 20 overs, with a magnificent bowling performance, and then chased down the total for the loss of four wickets to earn their first points in the T20 World Cup.
After being asked to bowl first, Pakistan produced a superb bowling effort by taking full advantage of the pace and bounce on offer by the Perth wicket and restricted the Netherlands to a low two-figure score. Netherlands managed to score just 19 runs in the powerplay and struggled to get going against Pakistan’s strong bowling attack.
All-rounder Shadab Khan bowled exceptionally and did all the damage in the middle overs, ending his spell with figures of 3/22 in his four overs. Pace bowlers — Shaheen Afridi, Haris Rauf, Mohammad Wasim and Naseem Shah were also quite economical, with Netherlands finding it hard to counter them.
Colin Ackermann was the only Netherlands batter who contributed to the majority of the total by scoring 27 off 27 balls with two fours after getting off to a start. The only other batter who managed to get to a double figure score was captain Scott Edwards who scored 15 off 20 with one four.
In the end, Netherlands could only manage to put up a total of 91/9 on the board in their 20 overs.
While chasing, opener Mohammad Rizwan started his innings with a superb shot down the ground. However, skipper Babar Azam was unfortunate as he was dismissed run out for 4 off 5 by Roelof van der Merwe. Babar has now been dismissed three times in a row under a score of ten for the first time in his T20I career.
Pakistan had made one change in the playing eleven for this match, with Fakhar Zaman coming in for Haider Ali in the batting order.
The left-right hand combination of Fakhar Zaman and Rizwan then added a crucial 37 run stand off 31 deliveries for the second wicket which helped Pakistan chase down a small target. Fakhar’s knock of 20 off 16 with three fours came to an end when Brandon Glover dismissed him with Scott Edwards taking a fine diving catch behind the stumps.
Paul van Meekeren then took a prized wicket of Rizwan who missed out on his half century by just one run scoring 49 off 39 with five fours. However, before his dismissal, Rizwan had already done enough damage as they needed just nine runs off 47 balls.
With the scores level, Pakistan went on to lose another wicket of Shan Masood who scored 12 off 16, but they eventually completed the win with 6.1 overs to spare. This was not only Pakistan’s first win in the tournament, but also their first ever win in Australia in T20Is.
Leg-spinner Shadab Khan was awarded Player of the Match for his superb bowling performance of 3/22 from his four overs.
Brief scores: Pakistan 95/4 in 13.5 overs (Mohammad Rizwan 49, Fakhar Zaman 20) beat Netherlands 91/9 in 20 overs (Colin Ackermann 27; Shadab Khan 3/22, Mohammad Wasim 2/15) by six wickets.
Comments