Pakistan defeated Netherlands in the last matchImage Credit source: Getty Images
How bad the condition of Pakistan cricket is can be known in ICC tournaments. Be it men’s team or women’s team, Pakistan has to struggle for one win and faces defeat even against smaller teams. This was the story of the Pakistani women’s team in the ongoing Women’s T20 World Cup 2026 in England. Pakistan, which was already out of the race for the semi-finals after losing 4 consecutive matches in the group stage, faced trouble in defeating Netherlands in the last match but somehow it won the match by 37 runs.
No one expected the Pakistani team, captained by Sana Fatima, to even reach the semi-finals, let alone the title. But still there was some hope that this team would give some competition to teams like India and Australia. But leave aside India, Australia and South Africa, even defeating Bangladesh proved impossible for Pakistan and in that match too, Pakistan lost by 23 runs. In this way, once again the team was out of the group stage.
Now Pakistan’s last match was against Netherlands, whose condition was also similar to that of Pakistan. This team also could not win any match. But the difference is that the Dutch team is participating in the World Cup for the first time. In such a situation, Pakistan had the last chance to save some honor by winning this match, but Pakistani batting looked defeated even in front of the new team. Batting first, the Pakistani team could score only 126 runs in 20 overs.
If opener Gul Firozha had not scored a half-century for Pakistan, then this time also the condition of the team would have been thin. Experienced batsman Firozha scored unbeaten 63 runs in 52 balls. Apart from him, Ayesha Zafar scored 32 runs at number three. Only the top-3 of Pakistan could touch double figures, while the next five batsmen remained on single digit scores only. For Netherlands, 24 year old pacer Iris Zwilling took 2 wickets for just 17 runs in 4 overs.
It was not going to be easy to win on such a small score. The Dutch batsmen did not attack him easily. Netherlands had scored only 54 runs in the first 10 overs but only 3 wickets had fallen. But after this, the Pakistani bowlers including captain Fatima completely controlled the pace of runs and finally the entire Netherlands team collapsed for just 89 runs in 18 overs. Pakistan ended the tournament with its only win by 37 runs.
