Watch: Fakhar Zaman continued his poor run of form, chipping an easy return catch to Logan van Beek early in Pakistan’s opening World Cup game against Netherlands at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad today (October 6).
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Netherlands won the toss and put Pakistan in to bat. Their decision was vindicated early in the innings as Logan van Beek, their hero from the World Cup Qualifier, got Zaman to chip an easy return catch to him in the fourth over.
Off-spinner Aryan Dutt bowled the first over, with van Beek sharing the new ball with him. The right-arm seamer got decent shape with the new ball, bringing the ball back in to the two left-handers. With the fourth ball of his second over, he finally struck.
Zaman tried to drive a length ball on off-stump on the up but was only able to splice it back to van Beek, who accepted the easy return catch gleefully, handing Netherlands their first breakthrough at the score of 15.
This marked Zaman’s sixth consecutive score of less than 30 and 11th consecutive score of less than 50 in ODIs, stretching his extended run of poor form even further.
Netherlands’ good start got even better a few overs later when Babar Azam pulled a Colin Ackermann short ball straight to mid-wicket and Imam-ul-Haq hooked a Paul van Meekeren bouncer to fine-leg to leave Pakistan reeling at 38-3.
By the end of the first powerplay, Pakistan’s score read 43-3 – a far from ideal start from their perspective. Fortunately for them, Mohammad Rizwan and Saud Shakeel have been able to stitch a decent fourth-wicket partnership to steady their innings, taking their score to 78-3 at the end of 15 overs.
Watch Fakhar Zaman hand an easy return catch to Logan van Beek:
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