An easy win by Pakistan against Bangladesh. Pakistan won the match by 7 wickets. Their bowlers, especially their pacers, showed the opposition batters helpless and restricted them to a low total.
Bangladesh scored 193/10 in 38.4 overs which Pakistan chased down easily in 39.3 overs after losing 3 wickets they scored 194 runs. A great start by them in the Super Four of the Asia Cup.
Bangladesh after winning the toss goes for batting first.
Their decision doesn’t go right as they lose 4 wickets at 47 runs. Their star performer from the last match against Afghanistan, Mehidy Hasan Miraz goes out on a golden duck. After losing three wickets, a valuable partnership built between Captain Shakib Al Hasan (53 runs) and Mushfiqur Rahim (64 runs) of 100 runs. Shakib took 57 balls to get there and hit 7 boundaries in his innings. Rahim took 87 balls to reach there and hit 5 fours.
After both of the players departure none of the remaining players showed bravery against the pace attack and got restricted to 193 runs and lost all the wickets.
Haris Rauf with his sheer pace took 4 wickets. Naseem Shah got 3 useful wickets. Shaheen Afridi, Faheem Ashraf and Iftikhar Ahmed got 1 wicket each.
Fakhar Zaman (20 runs) again fails to provide some solid runs in the beginning. Imam-ul-Haq (78 runs) again shows why Lahore is one of his places to bat. He has a great record here and hit 2 fifties and 2 hundreds till now. He along with Mohammad Rizwan (63 runs) maintains a healthy partnership of 85 runs.
In the end Rizwan and Agha Salman (12 runs) chased down the target easily in 39.3 overs and scored 194 runs by losing 3 wickets.
Bangladesh bowlers seem to be helpless in front of the batters. Taskin Ahmed, Shoriful Islam and Mehidy Hasan Miraz get 1 wicket each.
Haris Rauf, Pakistan, Player of the Match
“It was hot out there, but I’ve played a lot of cricket here. I play PSL for Lahore, the crowd always expects us to perform here. Before any game, we plan as a bowling unit. We talk about bowling to different plans based on the game phase. Hard length was tough to play here, and the plan was to keep bowling stump to stump. Didn’t need to go to the yorker today.
I keep working hard and I have high goals for myself. I want to be Player of the series in this Asia Cup. Let’s see how the tournament proceeds.”
Shakib Al Hasan, Bangladesh Captain
“We lost at the start. They bowled really well and we played some ordinary shots. On a wicket like this, we shouldn’t have lost four wickets in 10 overs. We had a very good partnership, we should have got going for 7-8 overs. After I got out, there were no more partnerships. Very poor batting display on a surface like this.
We have to take it on our chin and move to the next one as we have another game in a couple of days. Pakistan are the number one team. They have got three world class frontline bowlers. If they can do that, it gets easier for their batsmen. We have been doing well in the bowling department. Batting in this department is a little bit hot and cold.
We need to be consistent and that’s what we’ll try to do. Our three seamers bowled brilliantly. They have been bowling well for the last couple of years. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get the wickets. It wasn’t a pitch where you can get wickets unless batsmen make a mistake. When I played the LPL, the pitches were slow. If that happens, it suits us better. Hopefully we do in Colombo.”
Babar Azam, Pakistan Captain
“Too much heat, but full credit to the fast bowlers. First Shaheen and then Haris Rauf. We planned on picking Faheem because we saw the pitches here, there was grass on it and we like that also. Whenever we play here, the crowd supports us and I hope all of them enjoyed this match. (On playing with India) This win will give us confidence, we are always ready for a big match. We will give our 100% in the next match.”