Pakistan opened their Cricket World Cup campaign with a comfortable 81-run victory against the Netherlands on Friday.
The 1992 winners were bowled out for a brave 286 runs in 49 overs, with Mohammad Rizwan and Saud Shakeel scoring 68 runs each. Their opponents were then out for 205 runs in 41 overs.
“I am satisfied with the result,” said Pakistan captain Babar Azam.
“Credit to the bowlers, we started well and took wickets in the middle. We lost three wickets while batting but the way Rizwan and Shakeel started took it away.”
When Pakistan was put in to bat on a flat Rajiv Gandhi Stadium pitch, De Leede put up a strong fight. He took 4-62 to stop Pakistan from reaching a big score.
Then, De Leede led his team’s innings with a well-made 67 off of 68 balls, which included two sixes and six boundaries.
In the 34th over, spinner Mohammad Nawaz bowled him out for a clean bowl. At that point, the Dutch, who were 120-2, fell apart.
Max O’Dowd scored five runs and Colin Ackermann scored seventeen. The Netherlands then lost opener Vikramjit Singh (52 runs off 67 balls), but de Leede and Singh led the recovery with a 70-run stand for the third wicket.
Singh hit four fours and a six, but he was bowled out by spinner Shadab Khan. Then, pacer Haris Rauf got rid of Teja Nidamanuru (five) and the rival captain Scott Edwards without scoring, leaving him with 3–43.
Logan van Beek hit three fours and a six in his run-a-ball 28 to keep the opposition going, but Rauf got rid of Paul van Meekeren for only seven runs to win the game for his team.
“It’s a bit disappointing. We bowled and fielded well,” said Edwards.
“We thought we had a good chance at 120-2. De Leede is a quality cricketer in all three departments. His innings was awesome, we just needed someone to be with him.”
The Netherlands had a good reason to bowl first because in the fourth over, fast bowler van Beek caught and bowled opener Fakhar Zaman for 12.
Then, spinner Ackermann got Azam out for five runs, and then van Meekeren got Imam-ul-Haq out for fifteen runs, leaving Pakistan in a bad spot at 38-3.
In their first World Cup game, Shakeel and Rizwan held down the innings with a strong 120-run stand for the fourth wicket. However, three wickets fell in 24 balls, allowing only 30 runs to be scored.
Shakeel hit nine fours and a six, but his sweep off spinner Aryan Dutt went wrong before Rizwan was bowled by De Leede, who then got Iftikhar Ahmed out for nine.
Rizwan hit eight extra balls.
Pakistan got even better when Nawaz (39) and Shadab (32) put together 64 runs for the seventh wicket. But De Leede bowled Shadab and Hasan Ali out in a row.
Nawaz was out in the 47th over, and Ackermann then bowled Rauf out to end the innings in 49 overs.
