Netherlands 186 all out (de Leede 89, Cooper 66, Rauf 3-16, Nawaz 3-42) vs Pakistan
Vikramjit was the first man to go, Naseem dragging one slightly back of a length that shaped away to take the outside edge. Max O’Dowd miscued a Haris Rauf delivery to Babar Azam at mid-off, before Wesley Barresi found him stumps knocked back for the second game in succession. He did deign to play a shot this time, but left too large a gap between bat and pad and watched his off stump battered once more.
For a while, Cooper and de Leede gave Netherlands hope that those early wickets weren’t much more than a rocky start, setting their side back on course nicely. They didn’t go into their shells, Cooper setting the tone immediately when he hooked Naseem behind the wicket for six in the fifth over, and smashed the final ball of that over through the leg side for another boundary. There was an element of fortune – and a rare sign of sloppiness from the Pakistan bowlers – when Naseem had Cooper caught, only for the umpire to find he had overstepped.
It was Cooper who took the initiative in the early stages, greeting Shadab to the crease with a six in his first over, and tonking Mohammad Wasim for three successive fours. De Leede was far more circumspect, his first boundary coming as late as his 51st ball, when he took on Mohammad Nawaz and cleared the rope. But with the run rate improving and the partnership ticking past a hundred, Netherlands appeared to be back on target for the score they might have aimed for at the start.
But Nawaz removed Cooper with the tamest of dismissals as the batter scooped one back to him, and the rot set in once more. Captain Scott Edwards also fell in single digits, the first time he hasn’t managed a half-century in five ODIs, and Pakistan’s bowlers were on top once more, de Leede watching helplessly on as Pakistan ran through the other end.
With Netherlands nine down, de Leede threw caution to the wind. A six off Wasim indicated the shifting of gears, and another six and four the following over briefly raised hopes he might actually get to three figures. But when Rauf offered him a slower delivery in the slot – ostensibly a gift – he could only mistime it to Fakhar Zaman at long-on for 89 and Netherlands fell well short of a par total.