Pakistan first win at the Twenty20 World Cup beat Netherlands by six wickets.

Rizwan becomes second highest T20 runs for Pakistan

Following an upset one-run defeat against Zimbabwe, one of the tournament’s favorites Pakistan are now on the brink of the T20 World Cup 2022 exit.

Their defeat against the African side has made Group 2 interesting for all the teams.

heir defeat against the African side has made Group 2 interesting for all the teams.

They are currently sitting in the fifth spot after playing two games. Meanwhile, India, South Africa, Bangladesh, and Zimbabwe are ahead of Pakistan on the table. The Rohit Sharma-led unit is leading the chart with four points followed by Zimbabwe and South Africa, who have three points each. Bangladesh has two points to its credit. Babar Azam’s side is yet to play against the Netherlands, South Africa, and Bangladesh. One more defeat will be enough to knock them out of the semi-final race.The best possible scenario for Pakistan now is to win their remaining three matches and Bangladesh beat Zimbabwe, while India also win all of their remaining games.In the aforementioned scenario, Pakistan will finish second with six points ahead of Zimbabwe or South Africa, who will end up getting five points each after five games.So, if South Africa beat India then Pakistan will have to pray for the Netherlands to upset South Africa and Zimbabwe to upset India and hope for their NRR to be improved.

Pakistan restricted the Dutch to 91-9, and then cruised to 95-4 with 37 balls to spare as Mohammad Rizwan made 49.

But it was the bowlers set up victory for a side that lost their opener to India and then were shocked by Zimbabwe in Group 2.

Shadab returned figures of 3-22 and pace bowler Mohammad Wasim took two wickets to set the tone for their team’s domination against a Dutch side who are out of the semi-final running after losing a third straight Super 12 match.

“Very happy. Performed very well in the bowling and in the batting,” Pakistan captain Babar Azam said after the team’s first ever T20 victory in Australia.

“In my opinion we could chase better than this. But a win always gives you confidence. We’ll try to do our best in the next matches and win.”

Pakistan lost Azam, for four, in the second over of their chase when he was run out by a direct throw from Roelof van der Merwe.

But Rizwan attacked from the start, hitting five fours and putting on 37 with the returning Fakhar Zaman.

Fast bowler Brandon Glover had Zaman caught behind for 20 as a crowd of over 10,000, dominated by Pakistan supporters, feared for the worst at a venue where Pakistan fell short by one run in their chase of a modest 130 against Zimbabwe on Thursday.

But Rizwan and Shan Masood calmed the nerves with stand of 30 and, despite both falling near the end, Pakistan sailed past their target as bowling hero Shadab hit the winning four.

Netherlands captain Scott Edwards won the toss and chose to bat first but Pakistan’s new-ball bowlers kept a disciplined line and only three runs came from the first two overs.

Returning opener Stephan Myburgh broke the shackles with a boundary off Shaheen Shah Afridi only to fall next ball, caught at fine leg attempting another big hit to be out for six.

There was no respite from the Pakistan quick bowlers.

Wasim took two wickets in two balls only for Paul van Meekeren to survive the hat-trick delivery, and Haris Rauf made good use of the bounce on offer.

A nasty bouncer from Rauf got through Bas de Leede’s helmet grill, forcing the batsman off the ground with a bruised cheek bone.

He returned from a medical check to sit out the rest of the match in the dugout sporting a nasty-looking black eye.

Shadab’s leg spin had Tom Cooper caught for one after the power play and then trapped Max O’ Dowd lbw for eight in his next over.

“I have bowled against few of their players in county cricket, so I know how they play,” said Shadab.

“All our bowlers bowled well. The fast bowlers put pressure in the powerplay, and I took wickets because of the pressure that built.”

After crawling to 34-3 after 10 overs, and with De Leede retired hurt, Netherlands captain Edwards and Colin Ackermann (27) attempted to rebuild with a 35-run stand but once they were separated the wickets kept tumbling.

Shadab trapped Ackermann lbw and Edwards fell soon after, for 15, to Naseem Shah.

Van Meekeren was last to go run out off the final ball for seven.

Pakistan need to win their remaining matches against South Africa on Thursday and Bangladesh in a week’s time and need other results to go their way to have any chance of securing a semi-final place.Pakistan wicketkeeper batter Mohammad Rizwan has another feather in his cap as he becomes the second highest runs getter for Pakistan in T20Is,

The batter achieved the feat during Pakistan’s six-wicket win against the Netherlands in the Super 12 game of the ongoing T20I World Cup.

Needing just 36 runs to complete the landmark, the right-hander scored 49 of 39 deliveries with the help of five boundaries. He not only became the second-highest T20I runs-getter for Pakistan surpassing Mohammad Hafeez but also became the only ninth batter to pass the 2,500 runs mark. The former Pakistan captain is now third on the list with 2,514 runs, behind Rizwan, who now has 2,527 in 76 games.