Pakistan showed their mercurial nature in the T20 World Cup 2026’s very first match. An almost-botched chase against Netherlands was somehow ticked off in the final two overs by Faheem Ashraf’s unbeaten 11-ball 29, as Pakistan scraped home by three wickets in a game that should have not gone down to the wire realistically.
Pakistan needed 29 off the final two overs to win – a daunting ask – but Netherlands couldn’t hold their nerve and let the thriller slip. Max O’Dowd spilled a straightforward catch of Faheem on 7 and the batter capitalized on the reprieve, hammering the rest of the over for two sixes and a boundary to all but draw the contest and momentum Pakistan’s way. Had the catch been taken, Pakistan would have been in shambles, eight down with 23 needed off 10 balls.
Pakistan’s struggle at the back end stood in complete contrast to how smoothly the chase had begun. The turning point came in the 11th over when Paul van Meekeren inflicted a double-whammy. Then, as wickets tumbled and pressure mounted, Netherlands suddenly looked favourites, until O’Dowd’s bungle-up opened the door for Faheem’s finishing act.
Earlier, Netherlands were sent in to bat but seemed to have left runs on the table after being bowled out for 147. Mohammad Nawaz picked up two wickets while Salman Mirza mopped up the innings with two in the final over to claim figures of 3 for 24.
Edwards top-scored with a 29-ball 37, but Netherlands needed one batter to bat deep. Pakistan, for their part, were sharp in the field throughout. Brilliant catches from Salman Ali Agha and Sahibzada Farhan along with a relay effort from Babar Azam and Shaheen Afridi helped compensate for the middle-order batting snafu that followed and nearly rendered them losers in a see-sawing fixture.
Brief Scores: Netherlands 147 in 19.5 overs (Scott Edwards 37; Salman Mirza 3-24) lost to Pakistan 148/7 in 19.3 overs (Sahibzada Farhan 47, Faheem Ashraf 29*; Paul van Meekeren 2-20) by 3 wickets
