Pakistan were made to sweat as the Netherlands took a flurry of late wickets, leaving them needing 29 off the last two overs with only three wickets in hand at the Sinhalese Sports Club ground in Sri Lanka.

“We had to do it the hard way,” admitted Pakistan captain Salman Agha, AFP reports.

“We did well with the bat. We batted well earlier on but then in T20 cricket a few bad overs can change the complexion. All credit to Faheem,” he added.

“Happy with our bowling. We did a good job. A target of 148, we would take that any day on this kind of surface. It was a good bowling performance.”