Cricket

'Let’s keep the momentum going' - Fans react as Pakistan outmuscle Nepal by 238 runs in first Asia Cup 2023 match

After massive win against Nepal in the tournament opener, Pakistan will now face the arch-rivals, India in their second match on September 2.

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Daniel S
New Update
Pakistan vs India

Pakistan started their Asia Cup 2023 campaign with a handsome win in the tournament opener against the new entrants Nepal. The men in green won the first match at the Multan Cricket Stadium by a massive margin as they completely outmuscled Rohit Paudel’s men in the first match of the 16th edition of the tournament.

The hosts’ skipper Babar Azam won the toss and decided to bat first; Batting first, Pakistan posted a big total of 342 runs for the loss of 6 wickets in the allotted 50 overs. Skipper Babar Azam and star middle-order batter Iftikhar Ahmed smashed impressive centuries to rescue their team after some early blows as they lost their top four only on the score of 124 runs in the 28th over.

Babar Azam and Iftikhar Ahmed powered Pakistan to a big total after early blows

Babar and Iftikhar stitched an outstanding partnership of 214 runs for the fifth wicket in favour of Pakistan before the skipper fell prey to Nepal pacer Sompal Kami in the last over of the match. Babar Azam scored 151 runs off 131 runs, with 14 boundaries and 4 sixes, alongside Iftikhar Ahmed’s 109 runs off just 71 balls, hitting 11 boundaries with 4 sixes.

Other than these two, star wicketkeeper-batter Mohammad Rizwan also contributed with a knock of 44 runs, including 6 boundaries before getting run out in a comical fashion. Sompal Kami scalped 2 wickets, alongside 1 wicket each picked by Karan KC and Sandeep Lamichhane for Nepal.

While chasing the target, Nepal couldn’t survive against the mighty bowling attack of Pakistan and they got bundled up on the score of only 104 runs in 23.4 overs. Aarif Sheikh and Sompal Kami were the only batters to cross the individual mark of 20+ runs with the knocks of 26 and 28 runs, respectively.

Star all-rounder Shadab Khan bowled brilliantly and scalped 4 wickets at the cost of only 27 runs in 6.4 overs. Other than him, star pace spearhead Shaheen Afridi and Haris Rauf scalped two wickets each, alongside one wicket each picked by Naseem Shah and Mohammad Nawaz.

Here’s how fans reacted to the outstanding win of Pakistan against Nepal in the Asia Cup 2023 opener:

Cricket News Asia Cup 2023 Pakistan vs Nepal