By Calvin Roberts
Buoyed by their two run win over West Indies in the knockout phase of this competition along with a man of the match performance from Zafar Gohar, Pakistan on the back of a 105 run first wicket partnership between captain Muhammad Babar (51) and Muhammed Nadeem (90) scored 332-5 in their 50 overs then bowled out Holland for 102 to win their opening game in the league competition of the CLICO sponsored International Under-15 cricket tournament by a whopping 229 at the Guyana National Stadium, Providence yesterday.
Pakistan who won the toss and opted to take first strike on a good batting wicket, rallied around useful contributions from Ashan Ali (57) and Gohar’ 50* punishing the young Holland bowling despite the valiant efforts of James Gruijters who grabbed 4-53 from nine overs.
Holland, who were at sea in the field, had an opportunity to separate the pair when Babar, who was on 34 and Pakistan 68-0, drove Usman Yousaf hard and straight to Nick Wories who made a wonderful stop at short cover in the 19th over. But as the ball eluded him, Babar went for a single and did not receive a response from Naeem.
Fortunately for him, Wories fumbled the ball whilst still on the ground which gave him enough time to get back in. He added salt to the wound when he struck the next delivery neatly through forward square for four. Babar was the first of the two to reach his 50 after seeing the 100 being posted in the 19th over. Hitting five fours from 63 balls he faced, when he turned Wories through a vacant mid wicket position for a single.
Babar lost his wicket shortly after reaching his 50 when he went for a drive off the bowling of Keon Brouwer and only succeeded in getting a thin edge through to wicket keeper Werner Erkelemens who accepted the offer gleefully. He faced 68 balls and struck five fours during his sojourn with Naeem.
Ali joined Nadeem who got to his 50 from 69 balls after hitting six fours and they posted a further 78 runs for the second wicket. Like the opening pair, the two continued to soldier on for their team with some sensible running between the wickets along with the occasional boundary with Naeem taking a liking to Brouwer whom he struck for three fours in one over. The 150 was posted at the end of the 29th over but then Nadeem, who was looking set for the first hundred in the League format of the competition was bowled by James Gruijters who had a double strike in the 34th over for a well played 90. He faced 107 balls and struck 13 fours during his sojourn at the wicket.
Gruijters then removed new batsman Muhammad Qaddif out lbw two balls later and suddenly Pakistan were 185-3 in the 34th over. Ali continued to fight on for his team and took a liking to Sebastian Braat, hitting him for three successive fours in the 37th over to move to 42, with the second one realizing his team’s 200. When Gruijters pitched one full on his pads, he obliged by pulling the delivery wide of backward square leg for four. He posted his 50 and the third of four in the innings from 44 balls with six fours, but lost his wicket when he was caught by Yousaf with the score reading 256-4. It was fireworks in the final six overs which saw some 69 runs being scored for the loss of one wicket thanks to some robust hitting from Gohar who blasted his way to an unbeaten 50 from 24 balls laced with two sixes and three fours whilst Faizan Khan was with him at the other end on 21. He faced 14 balls and struck two fours during his stay at the wicket that realized 69 runs for the sixth wicket for the team.
When Holland began their reply, they quickly found themselves tottering on 15-2 in the seventh over with Gruijters (04) and Jaap Dickman (02) back in the pavilion. Leon Turmaine who was dropped by Babar at first slip off Hafiz Qadir with the score on 37-2 in the 18th over did not capitalize on his life given as he went caught by Nadeem off Muhammad Nawaz for 18 that was decorated with two fours.
From 51-3, they slid to 98-9 in the 43rd over as Pakistan employed an all spin attack on an inexperienced Holland batting led by Gohar who initialized the slide with three quick wickets and Mirza Jamil who got a double strike in the 43rd over that placed him on a hat trick including the defiant Sebastian Braat who was bowled playing back to one that turned and left him.
They eased past the 100 mark in the 45th over thanks to the last wicket pair of Keon Brouwer and Paul Van Meekenken before the latter was bowled by Qadir for three to lose by 229 runs.
Only Braat and Wories with 20 apiece were able to offer resistance to the bowling of Nawaz (3-17), Gohar (3-32), Khan (2-10) and Qadir 1-15 who did the damage with the ball for Pakistan.
