Pakistan kept alive their slim hopes of qualifying for the semi-finals of the Men’s T20 World Cup with a comfortable six-wicket win over the Netherlands.
Chasing 92 for victory, they won with 37 balls to spare, opener Mohammad Rizwan hitting 49 off 39 balls.
Netherlands posted a turgid 91-9 in Perth, with Colin Ackermann scoring 27 and spinner Shadab Khan taking 3-22.
Pakistan need to beat South Africa on Thursday and Bangladesh next Sunday and hope results go their way to progress.
The Netherlands are eliminated, with a third successive defeat leaving them bottom of Group One, a place lower than Pakistan.
Earlier, Bangladesh moved into the top two with a dramatic victory over Zimbabwe, who are also still able to qualify.
From start to finish the Netherlands’ batting was poor.
It was a tepid display, with 63 dot balls in the innings, and no batter looked comfortable.
Bas de Leede was forced to retire on six after being hit in the helmet grille by Haris Rauf, resulting in a huge cut on his cheekbone, and him being replaced by concussion substitute Logan van Beek.
They struggled to cope with the pace of the Pakistan seamers, Mohammad Wasim bowling Tim Pringle and Fred Klaassen in successive balls with excellent yorkers.
He was denied a hat-trick by the finest of margins as the ball went between leg stump and Paul van Meekeren’s right leg.
Shadab was impressive, bowling a stump-to-stump line to pick up two lbw dismissals. The leg-spinner now has six wickets in the tournament and 20 in T20 internationals in 2022.
Netherlands captain Scott Edwards said: “In general our batting was pretty poor. We were on 15 or so after the Powerplay and just never recovered.
“It was 90 on a decent wicket so it is always going to be difficult to defend.”
There was another failure for Pakistan captain Babar Azam, who was run out by Roeloef van der Merwe for four, meaning he has scored just eight runs in three games.
Fakhar Zaman, who came into the team and made 20, and Rizwan, who played nicely including two gorgeous straight drives, were caught behind off Brandon Glover and Van Meekeren.
Shan Masood was caught at deep third with the scores level as Pakistan started to labour after a fast start. But ultimately they got the victory needed to keep their tournament going when Shadab drove to the cover boundary.
Pakistan captain Babar Azam said: “I am very happy with the performance with bat and ball.
“We could have chased down the score without losing three or four wickets. But a win always gives you confidence and we take good things into our next matches.” (BBC Sport)
