NED vs PAK, 2nd ODI: Men in green outplay hosts, take an unassailable lead of 2-0 in the series

NED vs PAK: Team Pakistan, ahead of Asia Cup 2022 is stationed in the Netherlands, where they are playing a three-match ODI series. Surprisingly, Pakistan has fielded its senior team which will later travel to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to compete against teams like India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan. Team Pakistan will kickstart their campaign on August 28, 2022, against their arch-rivals team India. Ahead of this marquee clash, Babar Azam and co. are getting some valuable match practice and this might benefit them before going into the multi-nation tournament. 

In the three-match ODI series, Pakistan had gained an upper hand by winning the first One Day International (ODI) by 16 runs. Babar and co. had their intentions pretty clear before going into the second ODI as they wanted to win the series straightaway. The Pakistan team faced a major setback as they lost their main man Shaheen Afridi due to a knee injury, but as of now, the dominant Pakistan side seems to be pretty unfazed about it. Netherlands skipper Scott Edwards won the toss and decided to bat first. With the ball swinging all around, Pakistan pacers lived up to their reputation and wreaked havoc on the hosts.

Haris Rauf was the wrecker in chief for Pakistan as he claimed 3 wickets and conceded only 16 runs in his quota of 7 overs. Mohammad Nawaz followed Rauf in his exploits and he scalped 3 wickets too in his quota of 10 overs. The Netherlands team registered a total of 186 runs courtesy of Bas de Leede’s 89 off 120 deliveries and Tom Cooper’s 66 off 74 deliveries.

Team Pakistan was expected to chase this target down easily, but the early wickets of Fakhar Zaman and Imam-ul-Haq left the visitors reeling on 11/2. Then walked in skipper Babar Azam and wicketkeeper-batsman Mohammad Rizwan stitched a partnership of 88 runs which made life easier for the visitors. Babr scored 57 off 65 deliveries and Rizwan ended with 69* off 82 deliveries. Salman Agha also scored a sublime 50* off 35 deliveries.

Pakistan has clinched the series by a margin of 2-0 and when they take the field for the next clash, they will want to inflict a dominating clean sweep on the hosts.

Teams:

Netherlands XI: Vikramjit Singh, Max ODowd, Wesley Barresi, Bas de Leede, Tom Cooper, Scott Edwards(w/c), Teja Nidamanuru, Logan van Beek, Tim Pringle, Aryan Dutt, Vivian Kingma

Pakistan XI: Fakhar Zaman, Imam-ul-Haq, Babar Azam(c), Mohammad Rizwan(w), Agha Salman, Khushdil Shah, Shadab Khan, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Wasim Jr, Haris Rauf, Naseem Shah

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