Pakistan cruised to a 50-run win after Bangladesh’s batting capitulated yet again in the one-off T20I at Dhaka.
Chasing a moderate score of 136, the Bangladeshi batsmen were no match for the Pakistani bowling, getting restricted to a measly 85 in the 20 overs.
At the half-way stage, Bangladesh would have given themselves a good chance at chasing down the target, which was also Pakistan’s lowest total in this format of the game against their hosts. Unfortunately, Bangladesh lost a couple of early wickets, causing panic in their ranks and led to an oft-seen collapse.
Without Tamim Iqbal at the top – missing because of an injury – Bangladesh lost his replacement, Naeem Islam in the second over. Alok Kapali failed to open his account when he flicked one to mid-wicket and if that wasn’t enough, Imrul Kayes was run-out in the sixth over. He scored two.
By the time the Powerplay overs ended, Bangladesh had scored only 16 for the loss of three wickets. Shakib al Hasan fell soon after to Hafeez for seven and that dashed any hope that Bangladesh had of making a match out of it.
Nasir Hossain’s unbeaten 35 and Mushfiqur Rahim’s 10 were the only scores in the double figures as the hosts wrapped up on 85/9 in their 20 overs.
Earlier, Shakib and Kapali grabbed a couple of wickets each to pull Pakistan down after a quick start. The opening pair of Mohammad Hafeez and Imran Farhat got their team off at a breakneck speed before Shakib got rid of the left-hander in the fourth over.
Hafeez, who was the slower of the two opening bats, got himself 25 but Shakib had his second wicket when he lured the batsman into sweeping him. Hafeez missed and had his stumps in tatters. Little did he know that his 25 would go on to be the highest score in the Pakistani innings.
Umar Akmal continued with the momentum but his age-old affliction came back to haunt him. He had got himself to a nicely constructed 14-ball 20 before a dreadful attempt at a heave had him stumped. From there on, the Pakistani innings just unravelled as neither Shoaib Malik, Shahid Afridi nor Sohail Tanvir managed to get into double-figures.
Captain Misbah remained unbeaten on 21 as Pakistan scraped through to 135 for the loss of seven wickets.
