Like every Pakistan captain since 1992, Babar Azam needs to fill Imran-sized boots
In a sense, Babar the captain is a reflection of Babar the batsman, no excesses, no wild energy, flowing calmly like a brook. Celebrations are understated affairs; heartbreaks are mellow moments. Babar; in this vein, is more Kane Williamson than Virat Kohli, the two leaders he said he admires. (Read more)
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Haris Rauf will continue and a dot and a wide to start. These two batters are frustrating the bowlers. And he has knocked him over!!! van Meekeren gone!!! Rauf with the last laugh as NED are bundled out for 205 runs. PAK win by 81 runs
Hasan Ali back to bowl the 40th and 2 from the first 2 balls as the NED batters rotate strikes. Slower ball next and it's hit hard for a boundary. van Beek on fire. The last ball is also struck for another four!! NED 202/9 after 40 overs
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Haris Rauf now to clean up the NED tail. van Beek defends the first ball. Smashes the 3rd but straight to the fielder. Haris and van Meekeren exchanges some words in the middle. van Meekeren nails the last ball for a boundary as an answer. NED 191/9 after 39 overs
Hasan Ali in the attack now and he cleans up Dutt straight away. Almost done for Netherlands. That's their 9th wicket now. NED 184/9 after 37.1 overs
Shadab Khan in to bowl the next one and gives away 2 from the first 3 balls. van Beek does not think so. Goes down on his knee and blast one over the ropes. NED 184/8 after 37 overs
Nawaz continues and van der Merwe with a single to start this one off. Two dots follow as Pakistan maintain their vice grip on this match. Van der Merwe tries for a quick single but he's run out. NED 176/8 after 36 overs
Shaheen Afridi again and van Beek takes 2 but he looks to be struggling. The next ball, he flicks afridi for 4. But he is struggling to run with groans every time he exerts himself. NED 174/7 after 35 overs
Nawaz in to bowl the next over and an der Merwe with a single to start. Bas de Leede on strike now and he has cleaned the Dutchman up!! Huge wicket. NED 164/7 after 33.2 overs
Shaheen Afridi continues and strikes straightaway. Saqib Zulfiqar is caught leg before and Netherlands are 6 down. NED 158/6 after 32.1 overs
Nawaz from the other end now and gives away just a single from the first 3 balls. Saqib Zulfiqar, meanwhile, has other ideas as he takes him on and scores a boundary. 6 from this one. NED 158/5 after 32 overs
No respite for the Netherlands batters as Shaheen Shah Afridi has been brought back. 2 from his first three deliveries. Big shout for an LBW in the last ball with a toe crusher but Pakistan don't review. NED 152/5 after 31 overs
Shadab continues and Bas de Leede edges for a four towards third man!! Beautiful ball next as the umpire is checking for stumping. his foot is on the line!! It's pretty close. Not out as a part of his boot is behind the line according to the third umpire. NED 150/5 after 30 overs
Haris Rauf in to bowl the 29th over and after a quiet first 4 balls, Bas de Leede pulls him for a flat six!!! A wink at Rauf to boot!! NED 146/5 after 29 overs
Shadab Khan contiues and with a single, Bas de Leede brings up his 3rd ODI half century. Just 4 from this one as Pakistan is starting to dominate this game. NED 137/5 after 28 overs
Scott Edwards in and he has been given out LBW. The NED skipper opts for a review and yes, it's three reds as the umpire was spot on. another goes down. NED 133/5 after 26.4 overs
Haris Rauf continues and Nidamanuru off the mark with a four!! Goes for it again but this time, it's straight down the throat of Zaman. NED 133/4 after 26.2 overs
Shadab in to bowl the next one and Bas de Leede with a smashing shot which is saved brilliantly in the deep by Zaman. Just 4 from this over. NED 129/3 after 26 overs
Haris Rauf in to bowl the next and that's a vintage straight drive from Bas de Leede to get a boundary. Just 1 from the next 5 balls as Rauf making NED work for every run. Just 5 from this one. NED 125/3 after 25 overs
Shadab back and Singh gets his 50 with a single off the third ball. Nice and gritty innings from the NED batter. And he departs soon after. Tries to go over the top and Fakhar Zaman with the catch. NED 120/3 after 23.5 overs
Haris Rauf brought back into the attack by Babar. Can he break this partnership? Just a single from the first 2 deliveries. Good bouncer and Bas de Leede gets a top edge and it's over Rizwan's head for a four. NED 114/2 after 23 overs
Shadab will continue and gives away 2 from the first 4 balls. But he needs wickets at this juncture as the NED batters are settling in nicely. NED 108/2 after 22 overs
Nawaz will bowl the next and Bas de Leede starts this one off with a boundary!! Singh next with a mistimed shot but that's just over the fielder. Nothing going right for Pakistan. NED 104/2 after 21 overs
Shadab set to bowl the 20th and Bas de Leede off ther mark with a single to go off strike. Halfhearted shouts of catch it but Singh's shot is just short of the fielder. Singh ends the over with a six. NED 98/2 after 20 overs
Nawaz will continue and a settled Bas de Leede is on strike. Takes a single to rotate the strike and Singh returns the favour with a single of his own. Huge shout for an LBW but the onfield umpire isn't interested. Pakistan will review. The wickets are missing, shows the ball tracker. That's a review lost. NED 88/2 after 19 overs
Shadab Khan is introduced next. Bas de Leede slams his 4th delivery but great fielding near the ropes help prevent a boundary. 5 from his first over. NED 85/2 after 18 overs
Nawaz continues and Rizwan is shouting 'let him hit' from behind. Just a single so far from this one. And Bas de Leede obliges Rizwan and smashes it over the boundary for a SIX!!! NED 80/2 after 17 overs
Iftikhar Ahmed in to bowl the next and Bas de Leede comes down the track and smashes it over the outstretched hand of the bowler for a boundary. 10 runs from this over. Decent from the Dutch point of view. NED 70/2 after 16 overs
Nawaz replaces Rauf and it';s going to be spin from both ends. Just a single from the first 3 balls as the run rate keeps going up. The Dutch need some big hits soon. Not happening in this over. 2 from it. NED 60/2 after 15 overs
Iftikhar Ahmed to bolw the next and Bas de Leede cuts the first ball to get 2 runs. Pretty tody little over this. Just the 4 runs from this one.NED 58/2 after 14 overs
Haris Rauf continues and Singh cuts the second delivery and can't find anything from it. Nothing from the first 3 balls as the pressure mounts. Run out chance!! A direct hit would have got Singh but it's wide. NED 54/2 after 13 overs
Iftikhar Ahmed intriduced and what do you know!! He gets the breakthrough. Spin does it for PAK as Ackermann tries to sweep and the ball goes through him and rattles his stumps. NED 50/2 after 11.1 overs
Haris Rauf continues and Netherlands are settling pretty well here. Rauf needs to break this partnership but it's easier said than done. 3 from the first 4 balls and 50 up for the Dutch. NED 50/1 after 11 overs
Hasan Ali continues and starts this one with a wide. The next two balls are dots and Ackermann makes up for it with a great timed four to deep extra cover. NED 47/1 after 10 overs
Haris Rauf is introduced in the attack. What can he do. 1 from the first two balls. Ohhhhh!! Almost played on, that one. And Rauf goes a tad wide next and Ackermann smashes it for a boundary. NED 40/1 after 9 overs
It's Hasan ali again and Ackermann is beaten right off the bat. Still no runs from this over and we are 3 deliveries deep. Make that four. Well timed!! Ackermann pounces on the slowe ball and places it for four. NED 34/1 after 8 overs
Shaheen will bowl the 7th and after three dots, another inside edge onto the pads. Shaheen is interested but nothing doing. Just the 2 from this one. NED 30/1 after 7 overs
Hasan Ali in to bowl the 6th and starts with 2 dots as ODowd is content to defend. That was close, inside edge and it hits the pads. And goes for a pull and he's gone!! Shaheen with an easy catch in the deep. NED 28/1 after 5.5 overs
Shaheen Afridi will bowl the next one and Pakistan really need him to get a breakthrough. After 3 dots, Singh slashes the 4th and that's justt beyond the inner circle and trickles to the boundary for four. The last ball is creamed through sweeper cover for four more!!! What a shot. NED 28/0 after 5 overs
Hasan Ali continues and ODowd gets in on the act with a boundary of his own. Not the start that Pakistan would have wanted. Just 5 from this one. NED 20/0 after 4 overs
You know as a coach, once the game starts, only you can do bit as a coach. Lot of work is in the lead up to the game. Supporting players an the team. It is captains team and they need to execute it.
On reading pitches: we all try and read pitches as possibily can. It is about how they execute the skills. You need to do that. I don't think this WC will be decided by whether you read the conditions. But based on how you adapt to the conditions and venues and pitches.
On 50-overs: Because we had two T20 wC and WTC, sometime this format we didn't play enough. We were prioritising other things. It is still a fantastic format to play.
Shaheen continues and ODowd with a quick single to start. Singh gets the next one into the gap to mine 2 more. Excellent fielding from Babar Azam to save a sureshot four!! Great timing but an even better fielding. Singh throws his hands again and this time he gets it through the fielders to get 4. NED 15/0 after 3 overs
Hasan Ali intriduced in the attcak now. After a dot and an LBW appeal, Singh has smashed him for the first NED boundary. NED 8/0 after 2 overs
The Netherlands batters struggled to cope with the left-arm angle of Mitchell Starc in the warm-up game and they are not finding Shaheen Shah Afridi any easy either. The ball is moving under the lights for Shaheen, who is consistently bowling in the off-stump channel for opener Vikramjit Singh who is a key player for the Netherlands if they have to get anywhere close to this target. (Tanishq Vaddi at the venue)
Dravid: gilll is feeling better than yesterday. But medical team is monitoring day by day basis. Still 36 hours to go, we will see. Medical team hasn't ruled him out as yet. We can take a decision at the last minute as well.
It is hard to predict the condition. There are so many venues and different pitches. Some squares have red and black soil. Each one is unique. There is no safe total, ground size is different. We have to access and see what it is like.
Watched Bits and pieces of Rachin yesterday. Wicket became a good one as the game went on. hit five sixes had more Sachin in his name than my name
2007 was a long time ago. I have moved on from a player. That is the mindspace different. Need to support the vision of the captain and support him.
Welcome back to the chase. Vikram Singh and Max ODowd will start this one off. Shaheen Afridi comes streaming in and beats Singh straight away. Nothing off the next 4 balls as the NED batter is pretty careful. Finally a stroke and it's 3 runs. NED 4/0 after 1 over
The penultimate over of this innings and can Pakistan reach 300? Ackermann in to bowl and Rauf with a single off his second ball. Shaheen swings too but gets a single. And finally a boundary as Rauf flicks it behind square. And would you know it!!! He has smashed the next ball for a six!! Can they do it? A stumping check now. Looks out. And yeah. Pakistan all out for 286.
Bas de Leede will continue and Haris with an edge now which goes to the boundary!! Netherlands have been plain unlucky in these instances. PAK 274/9 after 48 overs
Colin Ackermann will bowl this one and the batters will probably target this over to edge closer to 300. What just happened?? Was there a run out? Yes, pretty careless running and Nawaz is gone. Why would you do that in this juncture? PAK 267/9 after 46.2 overs
Bas de Leede continues and there's 2 runs from the first two balls as Pakistan look for at least 280. The next one is bowled legside and afridi flicks it for a four!!! PAK 266/8 after 46 overs
Bas de Leede on Thursday said “We've set our goal high which is making the semifinal,” addressing the press there was a bit of a baffled reaction in the room. However, today he is walking the walk. He has been the bowler the captain turned to whenever a partnership was growing and De Leede answered the call. He has been stunning with the old ball with his accurate lines and lengths which which he mixed up with seam-up and cross-seam deliveries. (From Tanishq Vaddi in venue)
Aryan Dutt continues and Nawaz with a single. Shaheen on strike now. Edges and that has gone for four. How many edged boundaries have there been in this match? PAK 258/8 after 45 overs
AND ANOTHER!!!! Hasan Ali is rapped on his pads. Umpire says yes and Ali with the review. And yes, he's walking back!! What a performance by Bas de Leede. PAK 252/8 after 43.5 overs
Bas de Leede continues and after a dot, Shadab rotates strike with a single. Nawaz returns the favour and oh dear!!! Shadab is cleaned up!!! Straight through him and that has rattled his stumps. PAK 252/7 after 43.4 overs
Mohammad Nawaz and Shadab Khan are building a nice handy partnership here. The effort from the duo shows the importance of bowlers who can bat. India when put out their eleven in the tournament the dilemma will persist in having either Shardul at eight who could bat a bit or play a Shami who is superior in bowling quality but would have a tough time staying at the crease. It will be an interesting problem for Dravid and Rohit to deal with. (From Tanishq Vaddi in venue)
Aryan Dutt will bowl the 43rd over. Will the batters go after him? Doesn't look like it from the first couple of balls. A full toss and shadab smashes it to deep extra cover for a four. PAK 250/6 after 43 overs
Bas de Leede is back in the attack and Nawaz slaps him for a four as welcome. Ohhh!! Another run out chance but Vikramjit can't hit the stumps. Low full toss and it's duly punished by Nawaz with a boundary. PAK 244/6 after 42 overs
So then, down to the last 10 overs. Can Pakistan reach 300? Ackermann to bowl this one and Shadab with a single. Nothing much to write home about from this one. Just 6 from this one. PAK 233/6 after 41 overs
van Meekeren will bowl the 40th over and Nawaz with a single to start this one off. Uff!!! Beats Shadab completely next. Takes a very tight single as the singles keep piling up. Great shot by Nawaz to finish the over with a straight four!! PAK 227/6 after 40 overs
Ackermann in to bowl the next over and it's a rather quiet one with 3 coming off the first 4 balls. And just as I was typing that, Shadab has absolutely nailed the fifth delivery for a six!! Just beyond the fielder's reach. PAK 219/6 after 39 overs
van der Merwe continues and there are catch out attempts in two back to back balls but each time, the ball has fallen short of the fielder in the deep. A run out check now by the umpires but the batter is safely in. 6 from this over. PAK 210/6 after 38 overs