Saud Shakeel displayed his smarts as he appealed for a no-ball after spotting an extra fielder outside the thirty-yard circle and then smashed the free hit for six during Pakistan’s opening World Cup encounter against the Netherlands at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad today (October 6).

Pakistan were put in a spot of bother by Netherlands early in the second match of the 2023 World Cup. Having lost the toss and been put into bat, Pakistan lost their top three inside the first 10 overs.

Fakhar Zaman was the first to go, chipping an easy return catch to Logan van Beek. Babar Azam and Imam-ul-Haq then followed in quick succession, both falling to short balls, the former off a spinner and the latter of a seamer.

Shakeel came out to bat at No.5 with the score reading 38-3 and counter-attacked. He hit three boundaries off his first ten balls, racing to 16 in no time. By the end of the 20th over, Shakeel was batting on 28 off 23 with Pakistan’s score reading 101-3.

The moment of his innings came in the 22nd over. Shakeel chipped a Roelof van der Merwe delivery between long-on and mid-wicket for four and immediately appealed to the umpires for a no-ball. Netherlands had placed one extra fielder outside the thirty-yard circle and the Pakistan batters had spotted that.

A no-ball and a free-hit were awarded to Pakistan, which Shakeel took full toll of. Van der Merwe tried to cramp him for room on the free-hit delivery with a three-quarter length ball on the stumps, but Shakeel was quick to rock back and pull it over the mid-wicket fence for the first six of the innings.

The two-ball sequence fetched Pakistan 11 runs with only one ball being counted as a legitimate one.

Shakeel continued his aggressive strokeplay, hitting Vikramjit Singh for two consecutive fours down the ground in the next over. He brought up his fifty off just 32 balls on the last ball of the 23rd over.

Shakeel was finally dismissed for 68 off 52 balls in the 29th over trying to slog sweep an Aryan Dutt delivery. The fourth-wicket partnership of 120 runs between him and Mohammad Rizwan took Pakistan to a position of safety (158-4 in 28.1 overs), providing them a potential launchpad for the death.

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