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Naseem's career-best figures helps Pakistan deny Netherlands a famous win

image-l73ljalxNaseem Shah claimed his maiden ODI 5-wicket haul [Image- Twitter]

A maiden five-wicket haul from pacer Naseem Shah (5/33 in 10 overs) helped Pakistan deny the Netherlands what would have been one of their greatest ODI wins as the tourists eventually sealed a 9-run victory in a low-scoring thriller in Rotterdam on Sunday.

As a result, the Babar Azam-led side completed a 3-0 whitewash but that wasn't before they were given a mighty scare by the home team.

Chasing 207 to win on a tricky surface, the Dutch got off to a poor start as they lost Max O'Dowd, Musa Ahmed and Bas de Leede with just 37 runs on the board.


Naseem and Mohammad Wasim Jnr were the main wrecker-in-chiefs. The duo notched up 9 wickets between them at the cost of just 70 runs in 20 overs.

Opener Vikramjit Singh (50 off 85 deliveries) and Tom Cooper (62 off 105 deliveries) kept Netherlands in the hunt but neither of them could elevate their innings into the next gear.

As a result, the asking rate kept creeping up, and while Teja Nidamanuru tried his best during his 32-ball 24, it proved to be a bridge too far to scale.

Ultimately, Naseem returned to the attack and went bang bang to end any hopes that the Dutch had of a famous upset. 

Babar Azam top-scored for Pakistan

Earlier, Pakistan once again dished out a woeful batting display that was bereft of any sort of intent.

That they lost Abdullah Shafique cheaply- thanks to Kingma (2-15 in 5.4) -didn't help but with top-2 in-form batters- Fakhar Zaman and Babar Azam- at the crease, one would have expected to score more than 55 runs in the next 16 overs.

Zaman's 43-ball stay at the crease was finally ended by Logan van Beek, and while Babar did go on to score 91, he would have liked to get them at the better rate.



That Pakistan kept losing wickets- thanks to De Leede (3-50 in 9) - at the other end didn't help Babar's cause either. And, once he was dismissed by Aryan Dutt, the tourists went on to fold meekly for 206 in the 50th over.

Mohammad Nawaz's 35-ball 27 played a key role in Pakistan getting past 200, and ultimately, it proved to be just enough for them to seal a 3-0 win.

Brief Scores:

Pakistan 206 all-out (49.4)

Babar Azam 91 (125), Mohammad Nawaz 27 (35); Bas de Leede 3-50 (9), Kingma 2-15 (5.4)

Netherlands 197 all-out (49.2)

Tom Cooper 62 (105), Vikramjit Singh 50 (85); Naseem Shah 5-33 (10), Mohammad Waseem Jnr 4-36 (9.2)

Result: Pakistan won by 9 runs

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