A blistering century from Ahmed Shehzad gave Pakistan a comfortable 50 run victory, knocking out both the hosts and Australia. Pakistan now take on the West Indies in an effective quarter-final.

by PakPassion Staff (30th March 2014)

Toss: Pakistan won the toss and elected to bat

Teams:

Bangladesh: Tamim Iqbal, Anamul Haque, Shamsur Rahman, Shakib Al Hasan, Mushfiqur Rahim, Nasir Hossain, Mahmudullah, Ziaur Rahman, Mashrafe Mortaza, Abdur Razzak, Al-Amin Hossain

Pakistan: Ahmed Shehzad, Kamran Akmal(wk), Mohammad Hafeez(c), Umar Akmal, Shoaib Malik, Sohaib Maqsood, Shahid Afridi, Sohail Tanvir, Umar Gul, Saeed Ajmal, Zulfiqar Babar

 

Pakistan began with a flying start with a strong opening partnership between Ahmed Shehzad and Kamran Akmal of 43, mostly from Shehzad who has come under fire of late, with questions arising of his suitability in this format. While Shehzad smashed his way to a fantastic start, Akmal simply rotated the strike for Shehzad and then tried to join the party. Unfortunately he failed and top edged to Zia-ur Rehman who took a great catch. Shehzad and Hafeez carried on with Shehzad doing the bulk of the damage and Hafeez calmly advising his youngster to persist and giving him the strike. Hafeez was out chasing a turning ball from Abdur Razzak, stepping out his crease and was stumped for a meager 8 runs off 12 deliveries. 

The man of the day, Shehzad, who fought through the adversity of the last few matches and his inability to perform in world tournaments reached a cool 50. Umar Akmal threw his wicket away to short third man after scoring no runs despite his fantastic form in the tournament and showed some of the brashness that he has in the past. Pakistan in typical fashion had lost a flurry of wickets after a great start. 

Shoaib Malik was the man in after that, although some were curious as to why a man who has not played a great deal of cricket came in before a real power hitter in Maqsood. Malik and Shehzad consolidated for the wickets falling in quick succession. Bangladesh kept it tight and the run rate during this time dipped quite a bit. Pakistan could not pick the boundaries for a few overs and were sticking to ones and twos with quite a few dot balls in there as well. 

Shehzad decided enough was enough and after 28 balls of no boundaries, Shehzad found his feet and began to hit the ball to all parts. As with the other batsmen at the crease, Malik simply gave support to the man of the day who was smashing boundaries outside the park at his own free will and was poised for his and Pakistan's first T20I century.

After that 13th over, the floodgates opened and Malik joined the party as well. Bangladesh were sloppy in the field and Pakistan capitalized, picking off the seamers with ease while cautiously playing the spinners who had done the damage to the top order. 

After 15 overs, Pakistan were 130/3 and poised to get a huge total with wickets in hand, runs on the board, and a set batsmen looking to finish the innings. They did exactly this, but got bogged down a bit in Shehzads search for his maiden century, and Malik fell off a wide ball where he slipped out of his crease and was stumped for a useful 26. 

Shahid Afridi stepped in for fireworks at the end of the innings with Shehzad who reached Pakistan's first century in T20Is off an impressive 58 balls. After scoring his century Shehzad went for a 6, only to be caught out to the man at long on Tamim Iqbal, however the bowler overstepped and a no ball ensued, keeping Shehzad in the middle.

An Afridi blitz was just what the doctor ordered. He was out to a skier in typical Afridi fashion, but not before doing some damage with 22 off 9. 

Shehzad batted through the innings and finished with a massive 111 runs off 62 balls leading Pakistan to an impressive score of 190-5. 

Fall Of Wickets

1-43 (Kamran Akmal, 4.3 ov), 
2-70 (Mohammad Hafeez, 8.5 ov), 
3-71 (Umar Akmal, 9.2 ov), 
4-154 (Shoaib Malik, 17.4 ov), 
5-188 (Shahid Afridi, 19.4 ov) 


Bangladesh Innings

Bangladesh needed to get off to a flier to chase 190 runs, but they seemed keen on steadying their innings, keeping their wickets in hand and picking their shots. Tamim Iqbal and Anamul Haq picked their shots well, however the run rate raced up very quickly. 

Umar Gul came on in the 5th over and struck straight with his second ball as Tamim Iqbal was bowled. Shakib Al Hasan came in at 3 and tried to take responsibility for his team for a chance to steer them home as the run rate was shooting to near 11. 

Saeed Ajmal joined the party in the 6th over after being smashed off his first ball for four by Anamul Haq. Haq tapped it straight back to Ajmal who took a simple catch. 

Bangladesh needed a partnership but with the run rate nearly 12 after 6 overs, consolidating for cheap wickets falling was not an option. Afridi stepped in and on his first ball, grabbed Shamsur who edged it straight to the keeper.

Wickets continued to fall as Zulfiqar Babar joined the party in the next over getting Rahim with a straight LBW shout. 

Shakib and Nasir Hossain finally reached Bangladesh's 50 in 9.3 overs, but still lacking a real partnership or a large over, the task of 190 seemed daunting and unless there was a huge change in momentum, Pakistan were cruising as boundaries completely dried up. 

Shakib knew that he had to eventually go for it and he went after Zulfiqar Babar with two consecutive maximums, but Pakistan continued to restrict them as the boundaries seemed to be anomalies and foreign to the Bangladeshi batsmen as the run rate climbed past 15 in the 13th over. 

With 110 needed off 6 overs, Bangladesh needed what was almost impossible, but they still had their man in Shakib who can hit with the best of them. He followed suit in the 15th over with consecutive boundaries to get his team going to try and avoid a thrashing. Dropped by Shoaib Malik on 36, Shakib was frustrated by his side, but was keen to make the most of his innings. However, a couple of balls later he hit an aerial shot straight to Umar Akmal for Umar Gul's second wicket. With 20 runs an over needed, there was not much more he could try to do. 

Nasir Hosain and Mahmudullah had a few good strikes to get the home crowd cheering a bit but with the total being so large, it did not matter at that point. Ajmal struck on the last ball of the 17th over getting Hossain to come out of his crease for a simple stumping for Akmal. 
With the match all but over, Umar Gul continued his fine form picking up Ziaur Rahman on his first ball faced for his third wicket of the match.

Bangladesh hit a few strikes to get the crowd off its feet but finished with a meager total of 140/7.

Fall Of Wickets

1-30 (Tamim Iqbal, 4.2 ov), 
2-36 (Anamul Haque, 5.4 ov), 
3-44 (Shamsur Rahman, 8.1 ov), 
4-47 (Mushfiqur Rahim, 9.1 ov), 
5-91 (Shakib Al Hasan, 14.6 ov), 
6-112 (Nasir Hossain, 16.6 ov), 
7-116 (Ziaur Rahman, 17.4 ov) 

Match Summary

Pakistan win by 50 runs.

From the word go it was all Pakistan. Ahmad Shehzad silenced his critics who said this was not the format for him and scored the first T20 century in Pakistan's history. He did that too without losing his wicket for a total of 111 runs off an impressive 62 balls. He found a good partnership in the middle with Shoaib Malik who scored a solid 26 runs before an Afridi blitz of 22 off 9 took Pakistan to an impressive 190 runs. 

Bangladesh never looked confident in chasing the total from the first ball. Anamul and Tamim gave a decent start getting a few boundaries in the first few overs before Tamim fell and runs simply dried up. It was an all-round bowling assault as 4 bowlers had at least one wicket with Gul taking the biggest haul with 3. 

For Pakistan they are in a virtual playoff with the West Indies, where the winner goes into the semi-finals. They are coming with a great deal of momentum but need to keep themselves grounded and focused for this vital upcoming match. 

Bangladesh though have tumbled out of the tournament that they entered with a great deal of promise. They will need to regroup and play a dead rubber with Australia who have also been knocked out. They are playing at home and will probably look to put on a show for the fans who have been spectacular with their energy.


Next Match:

World T20, Group 2: West Indies vs Pakistan, Mirpur, 13:30 GMT, 2 April 2014

  Discuss!