The bouncy track of Perth is a fast bowler's paradise as batters get troubled by the extra bounce. In-form Haris Rauf was excited to see the bounce as well and decided to hit the deck against Netherlands batter Bas de Leede which led to a nasty injury and forced him to get off the ground.
The incident took place in the last over of the powerplay overs on October 30. Rauf bowled a short one clocking at 142 kmph. De Leede could not get the shot away as he took his eyes away from the ball. The ball took a top edge and hit the helmet grill.
The Dutch batter immediately took his helmet off and there was a cut clearly visible on his right cheek under the eye. The team physiotherapist rushed to the field to De Leede’s aid. Meanwhile, Pakistan players Shan Masood, skipper Babar Azam and Rauf checked up on him. The swelling was evident and the top-order batter had to walk off the field with the physiotherapist.
Before a nasty blow to his face, Leede had been struggling to score in the powerplay overs. He faced four dot deliveries against Rauf. Before walking off the field, he had scored just six runs from 16 deliveries with a disappointing strike rate of 37.50. As a result, Netherlands had just 19 runs on the board after six overs.
The 22-year-old top-order batter also suffered concussion. Logan van Beek was announced as his concussion substitute. Van Beek walked out to bat at no. 10. He remained not out and scored six runs from nine deliveries. Netherlands could manage to post only 91 runs for the loss of nine wickets in 20 overs.
The 91-run total is also a record low. This is the lowest total posted by a team in T20 World Cup after playing full quota of 20 overs. As expected, the 92-run target did not pose a challenge to Pakistan. Despite their skipper Babar getting out early, Mohammad Rizwan’s 49-run knock helped them win the match by four wickets with 37 balls to spare.
