In a contest between two Asia competitors who have struggled to get going in the tournament, Pakistan emerged victorious by 7 wickets against Bangladesh, knocking them out of the tournament. Pakistan brought their most convincing performance in the tournament yet to restrict Bangladesh to 205 on the back of some excellent pace bowling from Shaheen Afridi and Mohammed Wasim Jr. The Pakistan batters finally entered the party as they completed the chase in just 32.3 overs giving a boost to their net run rate.
Pakistan came to this encounter on the back of a 4-match losing streak with Bangladesh doing one worse going without a win 5 consecutive matches. The former world champions were desperate to win this one to keep any hopes of semi-finals alive, making as many as 3 changes to the playing eleven in hopes of revolving fortunes.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh had the same sorry old story with batters not performing and bowlers being helpless, they sunk to new lows in the World Cup.
Bangladesh opted to bat after winning the toss, citing a dry pitch in the Eden Gardens. Shaheen Shah Afridi was back to his old self by picking the wicket in the very first over after setting up Tanzid Hasan through a flurry of deliveries outside the off-stump to be followed by one that came in, trapping the batter in front of the wicket. The pacer joined the 100-wicket club with that wicket becoming the fastest pacer to get to the milestone.
Afridi struck again in his second over, dismissing Najmul Shanto thanks to a fine catch by Usama Mir at mid-wicket, reducing Bangladesh to 6-2. Haris Rauf would leave Bangladesh in further trouble, as he came back after being struck for three boundaries to dismiss Mushfiqur Rahim.
Mahmudullah came into bat at number 5 instead of his usual position lower down the order. Bangladesh’s best passage of play came during the partnership of Mahmudullah and Liton Das, as they stitched together a partnership of 79 runs to undo the early damage induced by the Pakistan pacers.
Liton Das departed after a soft dismissal off the bowling of Iftikhar Ahmed for a well-made 45. Mahmudullah justified his promotion to number 5 by getting to his 50 off 58 deliveries. However, Shaheen Afridi came back to provide the breakthrough as he broke Mahmudullah’s defense by bowling around the stumps.
The last 15 overs offered plenty of reverse swing to the Pakistan bowlers, and Babar Azam made sure that he kept rotating his bowlers to exploit this from the surface.
Skipper Shakib Al Hasan took his own sweet time to get going in the crease and showed almost no intent to increase the scoring rate. He finally decided to pull the trigger and attack the spinners, stitching a 45-run partnership for the 7th wicket with Mehidy Hasan, who also played a couple of big shots.
Once Shakib fell to a skidding delivery from Haris Rauf there was no help for Bangladesh as the tail was bundled out by Mohammed Wasim Jr who used the reverse swing to his advantage.
Pakistan had to chase the small target in as few overs as possible to boost their run rate and eventually maintain any chance of making the semi-finals. Fakhar Zaman opened with Abdullah Shafique for the first time in the World Cup, as they played themselves in during the first 3 overs.
The dormant period was followed by some attacking cricket from the batters, as Fakhar Zaman chimed in with three sixes in the powerplay, with the team flashing to 55-0 in the powerplay.
The following period witnessed a run-fest as the Pakistan openers clattered the Bangladesh bowlers for boundaries and maximums. Shafique got to his third half-century in the tournament despite struggling with cramps briefly. Fakhar Zaman also got to his milestone with a six and it seemed like Pakistan was razing to a 10-wicket humbling of their opponents. Mehidy Hasan made sure that this was not to be, trapping Abdullah Shafique in front of the stumps for 68.
Fakhar Zaman was in no mood to stop as he struck Mehidy and Shakib for his 7th maximum of the innings. Skipper Babar Azam took inspiration from his teammate but was caught at Long-on trying to score a maximum. Fakhar Zaman became Mehidy Hasan’s third scalp as he tried to finish the game quickly, only to be caught at deep mid-wicket.
These brief moments of elation to Bangladesh wouldn’t matter at the end as continuous boundaries from Mohammed Rizwan and Iftikhar Ahmed sealed the deal for Pakistan, as they cruised to the target with 7 wickets and 17 overs remaining.
Much to the dismay of their traveling fans, Bangladesh slipped to their 6th defeat in the tournament with their semi-final hopes getting washed away. Pakistan meanwhile maintained the outside chance of qualifying with this streak-ending victory.
We started well, the way Shaheen started. After 15-20 overs, they built a partnership, our main bowlers picked wickets. We picked wickets in the middle overs – Babar Azam
Pakistan captain Babar Azam was speaking at the post-match conference and gave props to Shaheen Afridi for the great start to the innings. Babar was optimistic of qualifying further and said that they’d hopefully win their remaining matches.
“All credit to the boys the way we played in all three departments. We know, if Fakhar bats for 20-30 overs, it’s a different ball game, he played his natural game. Good to see him. We are trying to win the next two matches, we’ll see where we stand” said Babar Azam.
Pakistan will next play New Zealand on 4th November at Chinnaswamy and would hope that the other results would go their way to qualify.
Also Read: BAN vs PAK: Fakhar Zaman And Bowlers Take Pakistan To A Terrific Victory