Turning Point: Faheem Ashraf changed the match in 5 balls, saved Pakistan from upset against Netherlands.

New Delhi. What an amazing start the ICC T20 World Cup has been. In the first match, a breath-taking match was seen between Pakistan and Netherlands. After winning the toss, Salman Ali decided to bowl first. With the help of three wickets from Salman Mirza and 2 wickets each from Sam Ayub, Abrar Ahmed and Mohammad Nawaz, Netherlands were successful in getting all out for 147 runs. After losing 7 wickets for 114 runs while chasing the target, in the end Faheem Ashraf’s quick innings saved the team from becoming a victim of a major upset. 24 runs scored on 5 balls in the 19th over turned the entire match.

Pakistan cricket team was close to another embarrassing defeat in an ICC event but narrowly escaped. After winning the toss, captain Salman Aga decided to bowl first. Netherlands batted well but in the end lost the chance to score big due to disintegration of the batting order. Michael Levitt and Bas de Leede scored quick runs for the team while captain Scott Edwards’ inning of 37 runs took the team to the score of 147 runs. Amidst all this, De Leede’s 30 runs were also important.

Who put Pakistan in trouble?

Aryan Dutt took early wickets for Netherlands but nothing special happened in the match till the power play. Pakistan was easily moving towards the target. Paul van Meekeren took the wicket of Sahebzada Fahran who was playing on 47 runs and then Babar Azam also walked away after losing his wicket. From 2 wickets for 98 runs, Pakistan’s score became 7 wickets for 114 runs.

How the match changed in 5 balls

Pakistan needed 29 runs from the last 12 balls. The Netherlands team had control over the match. Van Beek came in to bowl the 19th over of the innings against Faheem Ashraf and everything changed from here. Faheem hit a strong six on the first ball. Returned on strike with 2 runs on the next ball. Then he hit a six but no runs were scored on the next ball. After this, Faheem scored 24 runs in the over by hitting a six and a four. The map of the match changed in 5 balls. Playing an inning of 29 runs on 11 balls, this player who came at number 8 made the impossible possible.