Pakistan, led by Babar Azam, started their World Cup campaign today against the Netherlands at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad. After being invited to bat first, the Men in Green found themselves in deep trouble at 38/3 in the first 10 overs. The likes of Fakhar Zaman, Imam-ul-Haq and Babar Azam were dismissed cheaply. However, the middle and lower-middle order batters somehow managed to take the team's score to 286.
They didn't even bat their full quota of 50 overs and were bundled out in the penultimate over of the innings. Bas de Leede was the best bowler for the Dutch picking up four wickets for 62 runs while Colin Ackermann picked up a couple while also being economical during his spell. Meanwhile, Pakistan captain Babar and vice-captain Shadab are being trolled for their 'boundaries are small in India' and 'pitches are flat in India' comments ahead of the World Cup.
During the captain's day event, Babar had stated that bowlers have very little margin for error in India with boundaries being very small. "The boundaries are small. There is no margin for the bowlers. If the bowling is a little bit off, the batsman utilises it. So, there will be high scores," he had said. On the other hand, Shadab Khan likened the conditions in India to Rawalpindi in Pakistan terming that the pitches are very flat.
"The conditions in India are similar those in Pakistan. In our last match (the warm-up game in Hyderabad), it felt we were playing in Rawalpindi, where we also have the same flat pitch and short boundaries. We are looking forward to learning more about the pitch," he had said after a warm-up game in Hyderabad.
But Pakistan struggled with the bat upfront and at the back end to somehow post a competitive total of 286 runs on the board in their opening game. For the same reason, the fans on social media massively trolled the team and especially their captain for his comments.
Here are some of the reactions:
