Pakistan, Feb. 8 -- All-rounder Faheem Ashraf played an unbeaten cameo of 29 (11) to take Pakistan home against Netherlands with a victory in a thriller of an opening match of the ICC Men's T20 World Cup as they faced defeat and needed 29 off the last 12 balls at the SSC Colombo on Saturday morning.

Pakistan, after electing to field first by Salman Ali Agha, were chasing down 148 runs and had an excellent start to the innings by scoring 98-2 off 11 overs but things went awry when they lost five wickets for 16 runs off 31 balls between the 12th and 17th over. As had been the case with Pakistan on several previous occasions to lose advantage and push themselevs into a precarious situation on the cricket field, the Colombo affair was not a ...