 |
| pakistan vs nederland shadab khan |
Tom Cooper's departure from the crease had a certain gratuitousness. It was a rare display of aggression that he was oblivious to the bigger and better-known bowlers and sent the ball to the boundary one after the other.
The determination with which Cooper was pursuing this goal, suddenly lit up the Dutch dressing room with a lamp of hope and a pessimistic glow over the Pakistan camp.
This pessimism of Pakistan was absolutely right because the pitch was favorable for batting, the ball was coming to the bat openly and Pakistan's total for this wicket was 30, 35 runs short.
But in the end, Haris Rauf was able to beat Cooper, but even after Cooper left the crease, Babar Azam never got a breather, instead, captain Scott Edwards entered the field and continued the offensive from there. was disconnected by Cooper.
If Vikramjeet Singh's innings had not been so sluggish here, perhaps the required run rate in the last overs would have been a little lower and an unexpected upset would have been Pakistan's destiny. Averted.
The last few months have been especially trying for Fakhar Zaman. Lacking ODI cricket and playing out of the batting order in T20s, he did not live up to his reputation, but the Rotterdam wicket was closely suited to his batting style.
Fakhar Zaman plays with a high backlift and where the wicket has a bit more bounce, there is full scope for him to open his arms. Here, against the Dutch bowling attack, which lacked an experienced bowler like Klaasen, he took full advantage of the opportunity and scored the seventh century of his career to bring Pakistan's total to a respectable level. But Babar Azam's leadership innings and pride for Pakistan. This effort would have fallen short if Shadab Khan's 'Fireworks' had not been involved.
In the final overs, when Pakistan were struggling to reach the 300 mark, Shadab Khan's all-round prowess made the match for Pakistan and set up a target that later proved to be defendable for Naseem Shah and Haris Rauf.
But apart from these few notable performances, overall it was not an enviable match for Pakistan and surely this team will not want to repeat this performance.
The way the catches were dropped and numerous run-out opportunities were wasted, it is clear that the fielding coach has a lot of work to do ahead of the Asia Cup.
When Babar Azam was handed the captaincy of the ODI team, he reiterated his commitment to play positive and aggressive modern cricket, but this Rotterdam performance was not positive, aggressive or modern in any sense and Pakistan's So the concept of middle order is still there.
If the efficiency and capacity of both teams is subtracted from this scoreline, it might be a satisfactory performance for Pakistan, but if the ranking of both teams is taken into consideration, then such a slow start in the ODI game of 2022 is not for anyone. Not rationally.
Moreover, when the factors of quickness of the wicket and inexperience of the Dutch bowling are also added to this scenario, the overall picture that emerges looks very worrisome for Pakistan.
Although in the final result, the winner was Pakistan, but even Babar Azam would have realized that Shadab Khan's aggressive innings kept him in the game, otherwise defeat here was not out of the question.
0 Comments