T20 World Cup: Pakistan Survive Netherlands Scare
The T20 game is made for drama. And no match assures a viewer for theatrics like one that features Pakistan at the World Cup. They already appeared to have injected enough of it before even a ball was bowled at the World Cup by choosing not to play India, provided they stick to that stand, thereby making every other match in their group stage a near knockout. Against their first match against Netherlands, you would have expected them to canter to an easy win just by reputation alone. And surely once they weathered the early onslaught to take six wickets for 20 runs in the last 24 balls to fizzle Netherlands out for a mere 147. There certainly couldn’t be a scare around the corner once they had just 50 runs to get from nine overs, with Sahibzada Farhan approaching a breezy half century and Babar Azam just getting into the grove, and plenty of batting yet to come? Could there?
But this is Pakistan we are talking about.
Suddenly, the wickets started to fall and the runs dried up. Once Paul van Meekeren struck with a double-wicket maiden, it was as though Pakistan forgot how to seek runs. They blocked or slogged like kids in a school yard, each wicket that fell further paralyzing them into fear. Even the experienced Babar Azam, whom one would expect would drop anchor and guide the team through the chase, tried to slog one out of the park, only to find a fielder waiting to take the catch. Pakistan lost five wickets and scored just 21 runs from the start of the 12th over to the end of the 18th over.
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The required run rate had climbed from 5.55 at the start of the 12th over to 14.50 at the start of the 18th. Forget the drama of whether they were going to play India or not, it looked quite possible at that moment they may not even qualify into the next stage.
And then as it often happens with Pakistan, somehow, they pulled it off. Faheem Ashraf got a bit of luck as he smashed 24 runs in the penultimate over, eventually winning with three balls to spare in the final over. It was an almighty scare for Pakistan.
Pakistan (148 for 7) beat Netherlands 147 by three wickets