Pakistan started their ICC World Cup 2023 journey with an important 81-run victory against the Netherlands at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Hyderabad, India on Friday.
With the win, Pakistan jumped to second position on the points table of ICC World Cup 2023.
Batting first, the Men in Green posted a competitive 286-run total courtesy of Saud Shakeel and Mohammad Rizwan's crucial 120-run partnership after the top-order of Fakhar Zaman, Imam-ul-Haq and Babar Azam failed considerably.
Chasing the target, despite a great start to their innings, the Netherlands could not hold on to the momentum and kept on losing wickets at regular intervals and were all-out for 205 runs.
Left-handed opener Vikramjit Singh and all-rounder Bas de Leede top-scored for their side with 52 and 67 runs respectively.
Meanwhile, all of Pakistan's six bowlers picked up wickets with Haris Rauf taking three, Hasan Ali two while Shaheen Afridi, Shadab Khan, Mohammad Nawaz and Iftikhar Ahmed grabbing one each.
Here is the points table after Pakistan's win:
A total of 10 teams will fight for the elusive title across 10 venues from October 5 to November 19.
The Cricket World Cup will be played in the round-robin format with all teams playing against each other for a total of 45 league matches.
The top four teams will qualify for the semifinals, which will be held in Mumbai on November 15 and in Kolkata on November 16. The semi-finals and the final will have reserve days.
The winners of the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023 will earn US$4 million. The runners-up will receive US$2 million, while the losing semi-finalists will earn $800,000 each from the total prize pot of US$10 million.
The winners of each match in the group stage will receive US$40,000 and the six teams that do not qualify for the semi-finals will receive a payment of US$100,000.
