Pakistan bowled out for 286 runs against Netherlands

Pakistan was bowled out for 286 in their opening match of the World Cup 2023 against Netherlands on Friday being played at Hyderabad’s Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, India.

Yet again Pakistan’s batting lineup failed to click raising concerns for the matches against the tough opponents.

Babar Azam’s dream to post a 300-run total was shattered as the team could only put 286 on the scoreboard featuring half-centuries from Saud Shakeel and Mohammad Rizwan.

Shakeel struck an attractive 52-ball 68 and Rizwan 75-ball 68.

Pakistan team looked in trouble early on as their opening batsman Fakhar Zaman was dismissed for 12 off 15 balls by Logan Weinbeek caught on his own ball.

After that, the captain Babar Azam also could not stay at the crease for long as well and after facing 18 balls he got out for only 5 runs. Babar was caught out by Colin Ackermann off the ball of Saqib Zulfiqar.

Pakistan’s third batsman to be dismissed was opener Imam-ul-Haq who lost his wicket after scoring 15 runs off 19 balls, caught by Saqib Zulfiqar off Paul van Meekeren.

After that, wicketkeeper-batsman Mohammad Rizwan and Saud Shakeel played sensible innings and scored their half-centuries in a convincing fashion to push the team’s score.

Pakistan’s fourth player to get out was Saud Shakeel who returned to the pavilion after scoring 68 runs, he was dismissed by Saqib Zulfiqar.

Mohammad Rizwan got out after scoring 68 runs while Iftikhar Ahmed could only score 9 runs.

Iftikhar Ahmed’s innings was also limited and he was dismissed for 9 runs off 11 balls, then 6 batsmen of Pakistan were dismissed for 188.

Shadab Khan and Mohammad Nawaz added 64 runs in the partnership for the seventh wicket to take the team to a score of 252.

Pakistan’s seventh wicket fell on the fourth ball of the 44th over when Shadab Khan was dismissed for 32 off 34 balls with two fours and a six.

Hasan Ali went LBW without opening the account and went to the pavilion, he was dismissed by Bas de Leede.

Mohammad Nawaz got out after scoring 39 runs off 43 balls and Pakistan’s score was 267 runs.

Haris Rauf and Shaheen Shah Afridi took an aggressive approach after 267-9runs and took the score to 286 runs and tried to play forward on the last ball of the 49th over but the ball went straight into the hands of the wicket-keeper and He promptly blew the stumps and ended the Pakistani innings.

The Green team was bowled out for 286 runs in 49 overs.

Bas de Leede was the top wicket-taker for the Netherlands with 4 wickets and 62 runs in his quota of 9 overs, Colin Ackermann dismissed two players.

The Netherlands won the toss and elected to bowl first against the Green Shirts.

Pakistan: Imam-ul-Haq, Fakhar Zaman, Babar Azam (c), Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Saud Shakeel, Iftikhar Ahmed, Shadab Khan, Mohammad Nawaz, Hasan Ali, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Haris Rauf

Netherlands: Vikramjit Singh, Max O’Dowd, Colin Ackermann, Bas de Leede, Teja Nidamanuru, Scott Edwards (wk, c), Saqib Zulfiqar, Logan van Beek, Roelof van der Merwe, Aryan Dutt, Paul van Meekeren