Babar Azam refers to Netherlands as Scotland; Cricket Scotland trolls Pakistan captain

Pakistan on Sunday defeated the Netherlands in the third One-Day International of their three-match series to hand a clean sweep to the Dutch side. Pakistan won the third game, which turned out to be a nail-biting thriller, by 9 runs. The visitors bowled exceptionally well to defend 18 runs in the last two overs. Meanwhile, Pakistan captain Babar Azam committed a big blunder after the match, where he referred to the Netherlands as Scotland. 

Netherlands vs Pakistan

Azam in his post-match interview heaped praise on the Netherlands bowlers for their performance in the first innings. Azam, who rescued his side with a 91-run knock, lauded the Netherlands bowlers for keeping Pakistan batters on their toes the entire time but ended up referring to them as 'Scotland Bowlers'. The incident has left netizens amused on social media. 

"We tried our bench strength today. Early on the ball wasn't coming well on the wicket. We were short of runs in the first innings. But credit to the Scotland (Netherlands) bowlers who bowled very well," Azam said in his post-match interview. 

Cricket Scotland responds to Babar's error

Netherlands vs Pakistan, 3rd ODI

As far as the match is concerned, Pakistan skipper Babar Azam won the toss and elected to bat first at the Hazelaarweg Stadium in Rotterdam. Pakistan sustained its maiden blow in the first over itself as Viv Kingma clean bowled Abdullah Shafique for 2 off 5 runs. Fakhar Zaman was dismissed for 26 off 43 balls by Logan van Beek in the 18th over. Pakistan lost Khushdil Shah and Mohammad Haris for 2 and 4 runs, respectively. 

Babar Azam played the captain's knock to help his team recover from a poor start as he scored 91 off 125 balls. Agha Salman and Mohammad Nawaz also contributed with the bat as they scored 24 and 27 runs, respectively. Bas de Leede picked three wickets in 9 overs, while Viv Kingma scalped two wickets. Shariz Ahmad, Logan van Beek, and Aryan Dutt each picked one wicket for their side. 

In the second innings, Tom Cooper almost took his side to victory with his 62-run knock before he was dismissed by Mohammad Wasim in the 46th over. Vikramjit Singh scored 50 off 85 balls while opening the innings for the Netherlands. Teja Nidamanuru also contributed with an individual score of 24 off 32 balls. However, the Pakistan bowlers prevented the Netherlands from chasing down the low total of 206 runs and eventually bowled them out for 197 runs. 

Naseem Shah picked a five-wicket haul for Pakistan, while Mohammad Wasim picked a four-wicket haul. The rest of the bowling group went wicketless. Naseem Shah was named the player of the match for his outstanding effort with the ball. 

Image: AP/Twitter/KNCBcricket