COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP):
West Indies fast bowler Romario Shepherd took four Scotland wickets in five balls, including a hat-trick, and Faheem Ashraf’s late assault rescued Pakistan in a three-wicket win over the Netherlands on an eventful opening day of cricket’s T20 World Cup.
The US gave India a huge scare in Mumbai before captain Suryakumar Yadav saved his team with 84 not out off 49 balls as the tournament co-host won by 29 runs.
Pakistan needed yesterday’s win as they can ill afford to lose any Group A points after announcing that they would boycott the February 15 match in Sri Lanka (co-hosts) against India, a decision that shook the cricket world.
The ICC hopes that the PCB will reconsider otherwise Pakistan will forfeit the marquee game of the tournament’s first round.
In the afternoon match at Kolkata, West Indies had a 35-run victory over Scotland, who replaced Bangladesh at late notice in Group C.
Shepherd grabbed 5-20 – including four wickets in the match-changing 17th over – and Shimron Hetmyer hit a 22-ball half-century.
The Pakistan Cricket Board accused the ICC of double standards in ousting Bangladesh from the 20-nation tournament, and the boycott controversy appeared to affect the team as they crashed to 114-7 in Colombo.
But Ashraf smashed an unbeaten 29 runs off 11 balls to carry the former champions to 148-7 in 19.3 overs.
‘Hold your nerves’
The Netherlands, earlier, had collapsed to 147 all out in 19.5 overs, losing the last six wickets for 20 runs on an unusual grassy wicket at the Sinhalese Sports Club.
The Netherlands were on the cusp of an upset. They had squeezed Pakistan before Ashraf cut loose against fast bowler Logan van Beek in a penultimate over that cost 24 runs and also saw Max O’Dowd drop a crucial catch off Ashraf at long-on.
“Heart rates go up and down. It’s happened so many times before, (and) we’re used to it,” Ashraf said. “You have to hold your nerves in these situations.”
Pakistan had choked in the middle overs as fast bowler Paul van Meekeren’s double-wicket maiden over turned the game on its head. Sahibzada Farhan (47) holed out in the outfield and Usman Khan chopped the ball back onto his stumps.
Babar Azam’s struggle in the T20 format continued when he made a scratchy 15 off 18 balls and offered a tame catch at long-on.
Earlier, Netherlands captain Scott Edwards top-scored with 37 off 29 balls as he guided his team to 127-4, but his dismissal in the 16th over saw the Dutch collapse.
Saim Ayub, who, surprisingly, was introduced in the death overs, grabbed 2-7 in the only over he bowled. Left-arm fast bowler Salman Mirza took 3-24, including two wickets in the final over.
Pakistan did well in the field, including Babar’s sensational catch to dismiss dangerman Michael Levitt (24) when he tossed the ball back to Shaheen Shah Afridi after losing his balance close to the long-off boundary.
Hetmyer’s aggressive batting lifted the West Indies to a strong 182-5 before Shepherd’s heroics led to Scotland being bowled out for 147 in 18.5 overs.
Scotland collapse
Captain Richie Berrington made a fighting 42, but his dismissal in the 14th over saw Scotland collapse from 115-3.
Shepherd claimed the wickets of Matthew Cross and Michael Leask before knocking back the off stump of Oliver Davidson to achieve the hat-trick. Safyaan Sharif offered a tame catch at mid-off at the end of the over as Scotland capitulated in their run chase.
Hetmyer smacked six sixes and two boundaries in the fastest half-century by a West Indian batter at men’s T20 World Cups, with Rutherford (26) and Rovman Powell (24) also playing cameos.
Left-arm fast bowler Brad Currie (2-23) picked up the wickets of Powell and Rutherford.
India batted first after losing the toss and were in unexpected trouble at 46-4 and 118-7.
Yadav came to the rescue and took the defending champions to 161-9 in their 20 overs by hitting 10 fours and four sixes.
Medium pacer Shadley van Schalkwyk impressed with figures of 4-25 in four overs, including the wickets of Ishan Kishan (20) and Tilak Varma (25).
The target proved too much for the Americans, who scored 132-8.
Namibia are the other team in Group A.
