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.

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 Hasan Ali and Haris Rauf taking two and Shaheen Afridi, Shadab Khan, Mohammad Nawaz and Iftikhar Ahmed grabbing one each.