Pakistan Vs Netherlands T20 World Cup Pti
Pakistan has started the T20 World Cup 2026 with a win. In the very first match of the tournament played in Colombo, Pakistan defeated Netherlands by 3 wickets in a thrilling manner. Netherlands had scored 147 runs in this match but Pakistan had trouble even achieving this target. By the 18th over, the Pakistani team was on the verge of defeat but in the 19th over, Faheem Ashraf brought the team back by hitting 3 sixes and 1 four. Ultimately, Pakistan achieved the target in the 20th over and started their campaign in the tournament with a win.
In the Group A match at R Premadasa Stadium on Saturday, February 7, the Pakistani team stopped Netherlands from reaching a big score after a fast start, which proved to be decisive for them in the end. However, batting first, Dutchman Owen Michael Levitt gave a bright start by hitting boundaries on Shaheen Afridi. But the Pakistani team kept taking wickets from time to time, due to which the pace of Netherlands kept getting slowed down.
The real blow to Netherlands came between the last ball of the 16th over and the 17th over. The Dutch team lost 3 wickets here, including captain Scott Edwards, while only 7 runs came to its account. Out of these, Saim Ayub took 2 wickets in the same over. Then Netherlands’ score was 127 runs. But then in the 20th over the team collapsed for only 147 runs. Pakistani pacer Salman Mirza took maximum 3 wickets, while Ayub, Mohammad Nawaz and Abrar Ahmed got 2 wickets each.
After bowling, Ayub gave a stormy start to the team in batting and scored 24 runs in just 13 balls. On the other hand, Sahibzada Farhan also increased the scoring rate. On this basis, by the 11th over, Pakistan had scored 98 runs after losing 2 wickets. But from here his decline started and the runs also stopped coming. Pakistan lost 3 wickets for just 2 runs, in which Babar Azam’s slow batting was also responsible.
From here the Netherlands bowlers took control of the match and took 7 wickets till the score was 114. The situation was such that Pakistan needed 29 runs in the last 2 overs and defeat seemed certain. Then Faheem Ashraf hit a six on the first ball of the 19th over. But the match changed on the next ball when Max O’Dowd of Netherlands dropped the catch of Ashraf. After this, Faheem scored 24 runs by hitting 2 sixes and 1 four in the same over. 5 runs were needed in the last over and Faheem saved the honor of the Pakistani team by hitting a four on the third ball.