New York, JUN 11: Pakistan defeated Canada by seven wickets in their third match of the T20 World Cup 2024 at the Nassau County International Cricket Stadium in New York on Monday.
After registering back-to-back losses against the United States (USA) and India in their first two matches of T20 World Cup, Pakistan made a comeback against Canada and managed to record a one-sided win.
Chasing the 107-run target, Pakistan had a tough start as they failed to score a boundary in the first four overs. Saim Ayub soon departed for the pavilion after scoring just six runs, leaving the Green Shirts 20-1 in 4.2 overs.
However, Pakistan continued to play with caution as Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan formed a 63-run partnership.
Azam lost his wicket for 33 runs but Rizwan (53 off 53) remained on the pitch and took Pakistan over the line by chasing the target in 17.3 overs.
Earlier in the first innings, the day belonged to Pakistan bowlers as the Canadian batters had no answers to their attack. Mohammad Amir, Shaheen Afridi, Naseem Shah and Haris Rauf all did their part with the ball as the Green Shirts managed to restrict Canada to 106-7 in New York.
Amir struck the first blow to Canada by removing their opener Navneet Dhaliwal in the third over by ripping the stumps with an inswinger. Shaheen continued what Amir started and took his first wicket of the day in the sixth over.
Pakistani bowlers continued their attack and kept on sending Canadian batters back to the pavilion but they struggled against Aaron Johnson, who played a valiant knock and scored 52 runs on 44 balls with the help of eight boundaries.
During the innings, Haris Rauf became just the second bowler after Shadab Khan to take 100 wickets in the shorter format for Pakistan.
Amir and Rauf bagged two wickets each while Naseem and Shaheen managed to take one each.
Playing XIs
Pakistan: 1 Mohammad Rizwan (wk), 2 Saim Ayub, 3 Babar Azam (capt), 4 Fakhar Zaman, 5 Usman Khan, 6 Shadab Khan, 7 Imad Wasim, 8 Shaheen Shah Afridi, 9 Naseem Shah, 10 Haris Rauf, 11 Mohammad Amir
Canada: 1 Aaron Johnson, 2 Navneet Dhaliwal, 3 Pargat Singh, 4 Nicholas Kirton, 5 Shreyas Movva (wk), 6 Ravinderpal Singh, 7 Dilon Heyliger, 8 Saad Bin Zafar (capt), 9 Kaleem Sana, 10 Junaid Siddiqui, 11 Jeremy Gordon
