Saud Shakeel and Mohammed Rizwan scored fine half centuries as Pakistan defeated Netherlands by 81 runs in Match 2 of the World Cup 2023 in Hyderabad on Friday.
After being sent into bat by Netherlands skipper Scott Edwards, out of form Fakhar Zaman’s poor run with the bat continued as he offered a return catch to Logan van Beek back to the bowler.
Star batsman Babar Azam (5) fell soon after pulling Colin Ackermann to Saqib Zulfiqar at short midwicket.
Paul van Meekeren then got into the act by dismissing Imam-ul-Haq caught at fine leg by Aryan Dutt leaving their side in spot of bother at 38/3.
Shakeel along with Rizwan brought the innings back on track with a valuable 120 run stand for the fourth wicket stand before the former top edged a sweep off Aryan Dutt to Zulfiqar for 68.
Wicket keeper Rizwan (68) was then cleaned up by a peach off a delivery from Bas de Leede. De Leede then struck again by dismissing Iftikhar Ahmed caught behind the stumps for 9.
Mohammad Nawaz combined with Shadab Khan added 64 runs for the seventh wicket stand before the latter was dismissed by De Leede for 32.
Shaheen Shah Afridi and Haris Rauf scored some handy runs towards the end to lift Pakistan to 286 in 49 overs.
All-rounder Bas de Leede was the pick of the bowlers for Netherlands with figures of 4/62.
Chasing 287, openers Vikramjit Singh and Max O’Dowd got their side off to a solid start. The pair put on 28 runs for the opening stand before the latter fell to a short delivery from Hasan Ali to Shaheen Shah Afridi at deep fine leg for 5.
Ackermann then fell to a poor short off Iftikhar Ahmed for 17. Vikramjit and Bas de Leede sitched together a 70 run stand for the third wicket before Shadab Khan broke the stand by dismissing the former for a well made 52.
Haris Rauf then pegged Netherlands back with wickets of Teja Nidamanuru and Edwards in the space of three balls. Rauf could have had Saqib Zulfiqar in the very same over, but Iftikhar dropped a sitter at slip.
Shaheen then struck by trapping Zulfiqar leg before wicket for 10. Logan van Beek scored an unbeaten run-a-ball 28 in the end to reduce the margin of defeat, as Netherlands were bundled out for 205 in 41 overs.
Pakistan 286 (Rizwan 68, Shakeel 68, de Leede 4-62) beat Netherlands 205 (de Leede 67, Singh 52, Rauf 3-43) by 81 runs