Sahibzada Farhan mercilessly mocked by Paul van Meekeren with bunny-hop celebration at T20 World Cup 2026: Pakistan face Netherlands in the opening match of the 2026 T20 World Cup at the Sinhalese Sports Club, Colombo. After electing to field first on a green top wicket, Pakistan restricted the Dutch to 147 runs in their 20 overs. Salman Ali Aga’s team was excellent with the ball as well as on the field. When they set out to chase, they appeared to be in complete control.
Sahibzada Farhan, who was looking in good form by the end of the 10th over, took Pakistan’s score to 98/2. He was out in 11.1 overs to a short ball from Paul Van Meekeren, who mocked the batsman after taking his wicket.
When the Dutch fast bowler was out after scoring 47 runs in 31 balls, there was a lot of celebration. In the same over, Van Meekeren also took the wicket of wicketkeeper batsman Usman Khan, who was out on a duck. Pakistan is now in deep trouble from 98/3 to 107/5 after the 14th over.
WATCH: Sahibzada Farhan is mercilessly mocked by Paul van Meekeren
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Questions were raised regarding the strike rate, Babar Azam was playing the role of anchoring while Farhan was striking brilliantly. However, he became the victim of Roelof van der Merwe in the very next over, scoring 15 runs in 18 balls. The Netherlands have a habit of pulling off upsets at ICC events, and with half of Pakistan’s team back in the dugout they certainly have a chance.
The men in green will be hoping to wrap up the game as quickly as possible as any upset in this game will have serious consequences for them as their next match is scheduled against arch-rivals India.
Sahibzada Farhan has been their best striker in recent times, as his tussle with Jasprit Bumrah in the Asia Cup 2025 went viral, and he made some headlines after hitting the world No. 1 bowler with good pace.
Shadab Khan and Mohammad Nawaz lost their wickets on the last ball of 15th over and 16.1 over respectively. With 115/7, Pakistan found themselves in shallow waters in the run chase. We can expect a good, exciting end to the first match of the marquee competition, and the Netherlands are close to another upset in the tournament.
Now the tail end batsmen, Shaheen Shah Afridi and Faheem Ashraf need to do some batting and need 32 runs off 16 balls. The Men in Green lost five wickets in the space of 16 runs. This has been the problem of Salman Ali Aga’s team since the 2023 ODI World Cup.
Pakistan, who have been in the headlines for boycotting the match due to the fiasco between them and India, will be severely criticized as it will be back-to-back upsets for them after losing to USA in the Super Over in the 2024 edition of this competition.
Also read: After the suicide attack in T20 World Cup, Salman Ali Aga made a fatal attack on Sahibzada Farhan.
Many more to follow…
