It was the third and final ODI of the 2022 Pakistan tour of Netherlands and the visitors made a few changes considering they won the series 2-0 already. And while it as a chance for them to test their bench strength, it was a brilliant opportunity for the home team to go on and get a win against a major Test playing nation on their home soil.
And those chances of Netherlands getting a win today heightened greatly after Pakistan batted first at the Hazelaarweg in Rotterdam and only managed 206 after being bowled out with 2 balls to spare in their 50 overs. They lost a few early wickets and were reduced to 37/3 but two Dutch batsman got together to stitch a brilliant partnership, which could’ve been the foundation for a historic victory today!
Babar Azam's scores in the 🇳🇱 series:
7️⃣4️⃣, 5️⃣7️⃣, 9️⃣1️⃣Well played, captain 🙌#NEDvPAK | #BackTheBoysInGreen pic.twitter.com/TCTzi0HIQp
— Pakistan Cricket (@TheRealPCB) August 21, 2022
Full fledged Pakistan all out for 206 against minnow Netherlands
🤣🤣😂🤣🤣 pic.twitter.com/AINPShIUiK— 𓃵 Ctrl C + Ctrl Memes 45 (@Ctrlmemes_) August 21, 2022
While it was an embarrassing batting display for Pakistan, there was one man who continued to score runs, and we weren’t surprised at all. Known as one of the world’s best batsmen across formats right now, captain Babar Azam was at it again as he scored his third consecutive fifty in this series, scoring 74, 57 and 91 across the three ODIs.
Twitter reacts to Netherlands vs Pakistan 3rd ODI
The hero with the ball for the home team was Bas de Leede who was also their highest scorer with the bat in the 2nd ODI, narrowly missing out on a well-deserved maiden ODI century. The 22-year old this time piked up his ODI career best with the ball, as he ended with 3/50 in 9 overs and put Netherlands in the driver’s seat at the halfway mark.
Bas de Leede impressed with the ball, dismissing Pakistan's lower-order trio of Mohammad Haris, Mohammad Nawaz, and Mohammad Wasim.#NEDvPAK | #Cricket pic.twitter.com/sN07qGQtI2
— Grassroots Cricket (@grassrootscric) August 21, 2022
Bas de leede is something player to watch out in upcoming days.
What a potential allround candidate.. Special talent….@KNCBcricket #NEDvsPAK #PAKvsNED— Dr.M.Vijay (@VijayMprofessor) August 21, 2022
A lot of the fun comments on Twitter were about how Pakistan will not be able to win the Asia Cup 2022 if they can’t even play Bas de Leede from an associate nation. Many others were tagging MI Emirates in their tweets on his performance because he’s been signed for that franchise to play in the inaugural International League T20 in UAE.
bhnchdddd Vivian Kingma aur Bas De Leede to khela nhi jaa rha inse, aur bolte hain ki we ow_n Bumrah 😂🤣 #cricket #PAKvsNED
— True Babar fan (@Honest_barbian) August 21, 2022
SEE ALSO: List of top online sports betting websites
To begin the game, Vikramjit Singh was super slow but he steadied himself and suddenly, he started to score runs with ease. He led the fightback but unfortunately, he lost a little bit of focus after getting to a fifty, which was also his second one of the series and third of the home summer. Here’s a tweet from him itself, at the end of the 1st ODI:
After the match I met Babar Azam and request him to guide me about cricket. Believe me, he and Rizwan spoke to me with such good manners and explained to me as if they were my brothers. ❤️🥰
ਲਵ ਯੂ ਕੀਤਾ ਪਾਜੀ ❤️🙏#PAKvsNED— Vikramjit Singh (@VikraamSingh_) August 17, 2022
While Singh was slowly putting together some runs, 35-year old Dutch all-rounder Tom Cooper continued his positive batting which has got him success right through this series. He scored fifties in both of the first two games this series and then went on to score a third successive ODI fifty here today, keeping the hopes alive for the home team at Rotterdam.
Fifty in 1st ODI, fifty in 2nd ODI, fifty in 3rd ODI – this is high class batting in tough situations by Tom Cooper in this series against Pakistan.
— Johns. (@CricCrazyJohns) August 21, 2022
Tom Cooper has had a series to remember
— Rehan Ulhaq (@Rehan_ulhaq) August 21, 2022
Cooper couldn’t get them over the line and a mention has to made for the match-winner Naseem Shah who hasn’t played much ODI cricket but he played here and was brilliant right through this series. He hit some great Test lines and lengths which were unplayable today, hitting timber on a couple of occasions. He got a breakthrough every time he was called on, claiming 5 of the 8 wickets to fall for the Dutch.
Beauty from Naseem Shah pic.twitter.com/OP2BC093Hi
— Team Shaheen Afridi (@Team_Shaheen_) August 21, 2022
Naseem Shah gonna end KL Rahul's intl career next week.
— AZ (@azkhawaja1) August 21, 2022
Naseem Shah the man you are! pic.twitter.com/QGdBAwNskJ
— Ramiya 2.0 (@yehtuhogaaa) August 21, 2022
The end was super tight, with Netherlands left to chase 26 runs off the final three overs. However, it was never going to be easy with Tom Cooper back in the hut and the home team now 7 wickets down. Naseem and Wasim finished it off in style and Netherlands narrowly missed beating the Pakistanis, lowing by 9 runs in the 3rd ODI and going down 0-3 in the series.
Netherlands already won the series in my book 📖 #NEDvsPAK #Cricket
— Absolute fake Daniel Alexander (@mrcool0283) August 18, 2022
For similar cricket news from around the world, stay tuned to ReadScoops.com…
Register on Sapphire and get a 100% first deposit bonus
