The first match of T20 World Cup 2026 was played between Pakistan and Netherlands in Colombo, Sri Lanka. In the end, Pakistan won the match by 3 wickets. At one time it seemed that Pakistan would lose the match, but a mistake by Scotland made Pakistan win the lost match.

Pakistan needed 29 runs in the last 2 overs. The team had lost 7 wickets. All-rounders Faheem Ashraf and Shaheen Afridi were present at the crease. The biggest hope for the team was Faheem Ashraf. However, Shaheen also has the ability to hit sixes. But in the 19th over, Scotland’s Max O’Dowd dropped a simple catch of Faheem.

Faheem Ashraf dismissed the match after missing the catch

Faheem’s score was less than 10 runs when he missed the catch. After this, he made Pakistan cross the victory line by hitting fours and sixes. Faheem scored 29* runs in 11 balls with the help of 2 fours and 3 sixes and made Pakistan win the first match of the tournament.

Pakistan won the match just because of the dropped catch

Don’t be surprised if porkies compare Faheem Ashraf with Hardik Pandya against Mighty Netherlands pic.twitter.com/EOYnSJMir9

— Nenu (@NenuHanma) February 7, 2026

full status of the match

Let us tell you that in the match, Pakistan had won the toss and decided to bowl. Netherlands, who came to bat first, were all out for 147 runs in 19.5 overs. During this, Scott Edward played the biggest innings for the team and scored 37 runs in 29 balls with the help of 3 fours and 1 six. During this period, Salman Mirza took maximum 3 wickets for Pakistan. Apart from this, Mohammad Nawaz, Abrar Ahmed and Sam Ayub took 2-2 wickets in their account. Shaheen Afridi got the remaining 1 wicket.

Then Pakistan team came on the field for run chase and won by scoring 148/7 runs in 19.3 overs. During this, Sahibzada Farhan played the biggest innings for the team and scored 47 runs in 31 balls with the help of 4 fours and 2 sixes. Apart from this, no other batsman could touch the 30 run mark.

Pakistan has defeated Netherlands by 3 wickets in a close match. Faheem Ashraf somehow avoided Pakistan’s defeat, otherwise the Pakistan team was going to start the T20 World Cup 2026 with a big upset. In this match played in Colombo, the Netherlands team, batting first, was all out for 147 runs. In reply, Pakistan team registered a thrilling victory with 3 wickets remaining in the last over.

No batsman could play a big innings for the Netherlands, but apart from captain Scott Edwards, Bas de Leede contributed 37 runs and 30 runs respectively. Thanks to Michael Levitt’s 24 runs and Colin Ackerman’s 20 runs, the Netherlands team was able to reach 147 runs.

Pakistan had got the target of 148

While chasing the target of 148 runs, opener Sahibzada Farhan played an inning of 47 runs for Pakistan. Whereas Sam Ayub gave a good start to the Pakistan team by playing a brilliant inning of 13 runs. Captain Salman Aga and Babar Azam were complete flops, getting out after scoring 12 runs and 15 runs respectively.

Pakistan kept on losing

At one time the Pakistan team had scored 98 runs at the loss of 2 wickets and had to score only 50 runs in 58 balls. But from here the fall of wickets started and especially Paul van Meekeren ruined the Pakistani batting. By the time 100 runs were reached, half of Pakistan’s team had returned to the pavilion.

Both the experienced all-rounders in the form of Mohammad Nawaz and Shadab Khan had also lost their wickets till the score of 114. At 114, 7 batsmen of Pakistan were out, thanks to Faheem Ashraf’s inning of 29 runs in 11 balls, due to which Pakistan was saved from becoming a victim of a big upset.

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