ADELAIDE: After a thrilling win over South Africa at Adelaide, Netherlands’ batter Tom Cooper had a message for Pakistani skipper Babar Azam when his side was going to take on Bangladesh in the next match.
Netherlands put Pakistan back in the race for the semifinals after the Dutch side pulled out yet another upset of the ICC T20 World Cup 2022 as they beat South Africa by 13 runs in the Super 12s Group 2 match here on Sunday.
Netherlands batter Tom Cooper asked Babar Azam, “Make sure you win, then we finish fourth.”
As per the point table, Netherlands’ victory over South Africa helped Pakistan back in the semis after the thrilling upset in the 40th match while the Dutch team eyed Green Shirts’ win over Bangladesh to finish fourth in the group and automatically qualify for the next T20 World Cup.
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In post-match media talk, Netherlands skipper Scott Edwards said, “Another great experience, another big upset from the Netherlands. The absolute goal for us after losing the first two games is that we are still playing for a spot in the next World Cup. Two results go our way.”
Interestingly, Pakistan gave it back to the Dutch side by beating Bangladesh by five wickets in the 41st match of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2022 today besides booking the book the semifinal berth.
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The two teams were competing for the semifinal spot in a virtual knockout game after Proteas had earlier faced an upset defeat at the hands of the Netherlands in the first fixture of Sunday’s tripleheader, which eliminated South Africa from the race for the final four.
Shaheen Afridi stormed through the lower middle order as he grabbed four wickets aiding Pakistan to restrict Bangladesh to 127/8.
Set to chase a meagre target, Pakistan batters held their nerves strong as the opening pair of Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan raised a cautious 57-run partnership in 63 balls before young Mohammad Haris played a superb cameo of 18-ball 31 to steer Pakistan to a comfortable position in the chase.
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