ROTTERDAM: Pakistan captain Babar Azam led the way for his side with a magnificent 91 before pacers Naseem Shah and Mohammad Wasim Jr decimated the Netherlands batting lineup and powered the touring side to complete a clean sweep in the ODI series.

Set to chase a paltry 207, the Netherlands batting line-up crumbled on 197, thus handing a narrow nine-run victory to the men in green. Pakistan, after opting to bat first, could not pose a commendable total on the board as the touring side bowled out for a paltry 206 in the 50th over. Batting first, the touring side was off to a dismal start as the debutant Abdullah Shafique walked back to the pavilion in the second over after scoring two. Following his departure, left-handed opener Fakhar Zaman and skipper Babar anchored the innings with a gritty 55-run partnership for the second wicket before Logan van Beek castles the former on 26 to provide an early breakthrough to the Netherlands. Babar then joined hands with the youngster Salman Ali Agha and added 46 runs for the third wicket before the latter fell short after attempting to go big. He scored 24 off 42 deliveries and smashed a boundary. Pakistan then began to lose wickets at an alarming, while Babar, on the other end, held his ground firm and kept the scoreboard ticking single-handedly.

The right-handed batter top-scored for the side and led from the front with a valiant knock of 91 runs off 125 deliveries, laced with seven boundaries and two sixes. Besides Babar, left-handed all-rounder Mohammad Nawaz remained the other significant contributor as he scored an important 27 off 45 deliveries including a boundary and two sixes. Pakistan’s batting tail then had no answers to the Dutch bowling attack and the touring side, in the end, bowled out for a skimpy 206 in the final over. For the Netherlands, Bas de Leede led the way with three wickets, while Vivian Kingma bagged two. Shariz Ahmed, van Beek, and Aryan Dutt, on the other hand, made one scalp each.

Published in The Daily National Courier, August, 22 2022

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