Pakistan vs Netherlands, 1st Match, Group A, ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2026

Mohammad Nawaz: I think I just kept my plans very simple as usual. I knew that the pitch is very good, like there's a little bit of grass on the pitch, so I just tried to bowl wicket-to-wicket and it was in my mind that the play the sweep shot very well against the spin. So the focus was just to hit the basic - good line and length, and stay with the basics. They were coming very hard from the ball one, so in that case the plan gets even more simpler, just to hit good line and length and let them do what they're trying to do. I think it's a good total on this pitch for us. We should comfortably chase this total. As a unit we are doing very well, everybody is focusing on the job, whatever the role the player has. So just keeping the plans very simple and we are focusing on our jobs. So that makes the team work very easy.

NED innings progression

Overs 1-6: 50/2 at 8.33 RPO (8 X 4s, 1 X 6s)

Overs 7-15: 73/2 at 8.11 RPO (8 X 4s, 1 X 6s)

Overs 16-19.5: 24/6 at 4.96 RPO (2 X 4s)

Pace vs spin in NED innings

Pace: 4/52 in 6.5 overs (ER 7.60)

Spin: 6/94 in 13 overs (ER 7.23)

Netherlands batters attempted 13 sweep shots (slog, conventional, or reverse) against spinners and scored 25 runs off those with the help of three fours and one six.

12:34 Local Time, 07:04 GMT, 12:34 IST: Netherlands will look back at their batting effort with a tinge of disappointment. They started decently, lost both openers inside the batting PP, but still managed to raise 50 runs. Cameos from the middle-order, but they needed at least one of them to bat deep. Captain Scott Edwards top-scored with a 29-ball 37, but the collapse began with his dismissal - 127 for 4 soon became 147 all-out as batters came in and went out. Pakistan were superb in the field and some of the catching was very impressive - three wickets for Salman Mirza, two wickets each for Mohammad Nawaz, Abrar Ahmed and Saim Ayub. Pakistan will be confident of chasing down 147 and we'll be back shortly for the reply..

Click here to read article