Mohammad Rizwan’s unbeaten fifty helped Pakistan beat Canada by seven wickets in a must-win T20 World Cup 2024 game at the Nassau County International Cricket Stadium on Tuesday.

Saim Ayub, who was brought in for Iftikhar Ahmed, failed to deliver again, scoring only 6 runs in 12 balls. However, Rizwan played a responsible knock, scoring a run-a-ball 53 to take the game deep. Babar Azam also contributed with 33 runs in as many balls as Pakistan chased down the 107-run target in 17.4 overs with seven wickets to spare.

Earlier, Pakistan pacers made full use of bowling-friendly conditions as they reduced Canada to 106 for 7.

Pakistan started poorly with Shaheen Afridi conceding 11 in the first over with back-to-back boundaries on the first two balls.

However, they successfully pulled things back, thanks to an exceptional spell of 2/13 by Mohammad Amir. Haris Rauf also took two wickets for 26 runs in his four-over spell, while Naseem Shah and Shaheen Afridi bagged one wicket each for 24 and 21 runs, respectively.

Canada looked in tatters with 55/5 on the board at the halfway stage. However, Aaron Johnson’s 44-ball 55 pushed them to 106/7 in their 20 overs.

This was a do-or-die game for Pakistan as they had lost the first two games against India and the USA by close margins. A loss tonight would have knocked Pakistan out of the mega event.

Team Update:

Pakistan

Pakistan made one change to their lineup, bringing in Saim Ayub for Iftikhar Ahmed.

Playing XI: Babar Azam (capt), Saim Ayub, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Usman Khan, Fakhar Zaman, Shadab Khan, Imad Wasim, Shaheen Afridi, Haris Rauf, Naseem Shah, Mohammad Amir

Canada

Canada made one change, too. Dilpreet Bajwa is replaced by Ravinderpal Singh, who comes in for his first World Cup appearance

Playing XI: Aaron Johnson, Navneet Dhaliwal, Pargat Singh, Nicholas Kirton, Shreyas Movva (wk), Ravinderpal Singh, Dilon Heyliger, Saad Bin Zafar (capt), Kaleem Sana, Junaid Siddiqui, Jeremy Gordon