Pakistan produced a brilliant bowling effort and register its first win against the Netherlands

Babar Azam’s flop show continues as he again departs early

Chasing the total down, Mohammad Rizwan set the tone early with a superb shot down the ground. It wasn’t such good luck for his partner and skipper Babar Azam, as he was run out for four. It is the first time in his T20I career that Babar has been dismissed three times in a row for a score of under 10.

A partnership would then develop between Rizwan and Fakhar Zaman. The pair established a stand of 37 off 31 deliveries which helped Pakistan motor along in their small chase. Fakhar’s knock of 20 would come to an end against the bowling Brandon Glover, with Scott Edwards taking a terrific diving catch behind the stumps. 

Rizwan would continue to guide Pakistan towards the target but missed out on his half-century by a mere one run, with Paul van Meekeren getting his prized scalp. While Pakistan went on to lose another wicket with the scores level, they completed the win with enough overs in the bank. It was Pakistan’s first win in the tournament, and notably their first ever win in Australia in T20Is.

Pakistan produced a brilliant bowling effort, restricting Netherlands to a low score. They made full use of the pace and bounce on offer on a quick Perth wicket. Netherlands never got going against the varied Pakistan bowling attack, managing to score only 19 runs in the Powerplay. 

Shadab Khan then did all the damage in the middle overs, ending his spell with superb figures of 3/22 in his four overs. The pace quartet of Shaheen Afridi, Haris Rauf, Mohammad Wasim and Naseem Shah were also superb, with Netherlands finding it hard to counter them. 

In the end, Netherlands could only post a total of 91/9 on the board in their 20 overs, as it was a job well done with the ball for Pakistan. 

Earlier, Netherlands won the toss and opted to bat first. The clash is of vital importance to both sides as they occupy the bottom two spots in Group 2. Both teams are yet to open their account in the points tally, having failed to register a victory in either of their two clashes. A victory is a must for both sides to keep their hopes alive of making it to the semis. 

For the match, Pakistan have ringed in one change, with Fakhar Zaman coming in for Haider Ali in the batting order. Netherlands have also made three changes, with Stephan Myburgh, Brandon Glover and Roelof van der Merwe slotting back into the playing XI.