Rotterdam: Despite a praiseworthy effort from the Netherlands, the men in green pulled off a close win against the dutch side by 16 runs in the first One Day International. Pakistan leads the three-match series by 1-0.
After winning the toss, Pakistan’s star captain Babar Azam elected to bat first. Pakistan lost an early wicket when opener Imam-Ul-Haq departed for 2 runs of 19 balls. Babar Azam and Fakhar Zaman took matters in hand and took Pakistan to 178 before Babar got out for 74 of 85. Fakhar Zaman scored a decent century and made 109 runs. Pakistan scored 314 runs after losing 6 wickets. Logan van Beek had expensive bowling figures, taking 02 wickets for 89 runs. Bas de Leede bowled an economical spell, picking 02 wickets for 42 runs. Both bowled 10 overs each. Vivian Kingma took 01 wicket for 61 runs.
In reply, the Dutch team lost wickets at regular intervals at the start of innings as they were 62 for 03 in 13 overs. But with the help of impressive batting by Vikramjit Singh, Tom Cooper and Scott Edwards, the home side showed resilience. Vikramjit scored 65 of 98, Tom Cooper scored 65 of 54, and Scott made 71 of 60. Netherlands, after a tough battle, fell short of 16 runs and scored 298 in 50 overs.
Haris Rauf and Naseem Shah picked 03 wickers each. M.Nawaz and M.Wasim Jr took one wicket each. Fakhar Zaman was named man of the match for his excellent batting performance. Pakistan will face Netherlands tomorrow for the second ODI at 2:00 pm.