Pakistan ease past Netherlands to claim first victory of T20 WC 2022
After a couple of thrilling and cut-throat matches, Pakistan finally managed to dominate the game from the word go and claimed their first two points of the tournament by defeating the Netherlands in the 29th match of the T20 World Cup 2022 at the Perth Stadium. Pakistan needed to win this game to stay alive in the tournament, and they managed to do so, thereby opening their account at the event.
The Netherlands won the toss and opted to bat first, but skipper Scott Edwards’ decision backfired in a very terrible manner. Though they lost just one wicket inside the powerplay, courtesy of Shaheen Shah Afridi, who claimed his first wicket in three games, the top-order batters struggled to score runs and get going. They could score only 19 runs in the powerplay and Bas de Leede had to walk out retired hurt, which added to the Netherlands’ misery.
Netherlands batters survived through the 20 overs but could manage to score meagre runs. Colin Ackermann and skipper Edwards added a few runs in the middle, but could not take the game deep as Pakistan bowlers kept picking wickets at regular intervals. Shadab Khan was the pick of the bowlers as he bagged three wickets. While Mohammad Wasim added a couple of wickets under his belt, Afridi, Naseem Shah, and Haris Rauf finished with one each.
Pakistan batters struggled, but chased down the total early
Pakistan restricted the Netherlands to a very low total and required to chase just 92 runs in their allotted 20-over quota in order to win. Given how proficient the Pakistani openers have been recently, it looked like skipper Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan would finish off the game to win by 10 wickets, but Babar’s poor form continued as he was runout after scoring just four runs. But Pakistan did not need to worry because they had ample wickets in hand with a low target to chase.
Rizwan and Fakhar Zaman sailed through the powerplay and kept the scorecard ticking before the latter was dismissed by Brandon Glover. Rizwan was dismissed on 49(39) but most of the job was done and the middle-order batters had to just take the team over the finish line. The Netherlands managed to pick wickets, but failed to defend their total and ended up losing the game. As a result, Pakistan won the game by six wickets, with 37 deliveries to spare, and claimed their first victory of the tournament.
