Recent Match Report – Pakistan vs Netherlands 3rd ODI 2022

August 21, 2022 c_admin Cricket News Comments Off on Recent Match Report – Pakistan vs Netherlands 3rd ODI 2022

49.4 oversPakistan 206 (Babar 91, de Leede 3-50) vs Netherlands

A miserly performance from Netherlands bowled Pakistan out for 206, handing the home side a golden opportunity to register a huge win in the final ODI. Bas de Leede, star for Netherlands in the series, was instrumental in keeping Pakistan under check with three wickets. Only Babar Azam, who scored a steady, if sedate, 125-ball 91, was able to keep the innings together. But in the absence of a supporting cast or an injection of pace a modest total was all that the visitors could muster.
Having sown up the series, Pakistan made four changes, bringing in Abdullah Shafique as opener for his ODI debut, as well as Mohammad Haris in place of Mohammad Rizwan. Opting to bat, Shafique had the opportunity to impress straight away, but just as he has done all series, Vivian Kingma struck early. Kingma’s nip-backer went through Shafique’s defense to knock back his stumps.

Kingma and Aryan Dutt kept things tighter than a taxman’s purse, never allowing Pakistan a freedom to accelerate. Coupled with lively fielding, Netherlands kept the pressure on and neither Fakhar Zaman nor Babar could truly break free. The pressure finally got to Fakhar, who went for a huge heave against Logan van Beek, only to be beaten by the pace and have his stumps rattled. The Dutch only squeezed harder, with the run rate continuing to crawl along well under four. By the 30th over, Pakistan had managed just 105, and 19-year-old Shariz Ahmed had sent Agha Salman back with van Beek taking another smart catch.

Babar was curiously passive through the innings, and the failure of the inexperienced middle order to capitalize only made his wicket more valuable. It didn’t come until fairly late in the innings and it was Dutt, who got rid of him for the second time this series, taking a superb one-handed catch off his own bowling.

The final few overs saw Pakistan try and break free, only for Netherlands to shackle them further. The odd four or six gave hopes of a change in momentum, but it was swiftly followed by wickets, with de Leede removing the dangerous Mohammad Nawaz and Mohammad Wasim at the death. Even Zahid Mahmood struck a six in the penultimate over, but Kingma returned to help get rid of the final two to dismiss the tourists.