Asia Cup 2023: Pakistan won by 7 wickets in 1st Super Four match

The first match of Asia Cup 2023’s Super Fours stage was completely dominated by Pakistan as they defeated Bangladesh by 7 wickets. Pakistan’s fast bowlers once again proved their mettle as they restricted Bangladesh to a low total of 193 runs. Here is a recap of the match.

Pakistani fast bowlers dominate the first powerplay

Naseem Shah with the new ball in his hand struck in the second over of the innings with the very first ball he bowled in the game. Naseem removed Bangladesh’s previous match centurion, Mehidy Hasan Miraz. Miraz chipped a good length delivery from Naseem to Fakhar Zaman, who took an easy catch at mid-wicket. Shaheen Afridi then struck in his third over as he dismissed Litton Das. It was a perfect set-up from Shaheen to Litton as he beat the outside edge with a slower and then on the following delivery he hit the deck hard to generate extra bounce which brought upon the dismissal of the Bangladeshi batter. 

Haris Rauf came to the party as he took two wickets in his first two overs by dismissing opener, Mohammad Naim and Towhid Hridoy. Naim’s dismissal was Rauf’s 50th ODI wicket. It was a great delivery as he bowled the hard length which enticed Naim to go for the pull shot which caught the edge. Rauf completed the catch as he managed to reach the 50-wicket milestone in his 27th ODI game. Hridoy was beaten for pace as he had no answer for Rauf’s 145kph delivery which crashed into the stumps.

Shakib and Mushfiqur show the importance of experience

Skipper Shakib al Hasan came to the crease when Bangladesh were at 31 runs for the loss of 2 wickets. He was joined by his experienced partner, Mushfiqur Rahim at 47 runs for 4 wickets down. The duo shared a 100-run stand as they took on average spin bowling from Pakistan. Both Shakib and Mushfiqur reached half-centuries and in the process steadied the ship after 4 quick wickets fell. Pakistan once again struggled in the middle overs to pick up wickets early on. 

Bangladesh suffers yet another collapse

Shakib after completing the 100-run stand with Mushfiqur was dismissed after playing a rash pull shot to a short delivery by Faheem Ashraf which went into the hands of Fakhar Zaman stationed at deep mid-wicket. His dismissal triggered a collapse of the Bangladeshi batters as they went from 147 for the loss of 5 wickets to 193 all out in no time. In fact, Bangladesh lost their last four wickets for just 3 runs in the span of 8 balls. Haris and Naseem completed their 4-fer and 3-fer respectively to clean up the Bangladeshi tail.

Lights out at Lahore

During the second innings after the 5th over was completed one of the floodlights at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore went off which halted the play. Pakistan had already scored 15 runs for the loss of no wickets before the interruption. After a break of more than 15 minutes, the floodlights were back on as the second innings resumed. 

Shoriful Islam took the wicket of Fakhar Zaman on the first ball of the 10th over. Zaman was set up beautifully after a barrage of out-swingers from Shoriful before finally bowling an in-swinger which caught the Pakistani opener in front of the stumps for an LBW. Fakhar’s poor run continued as he managed to score only 20 runs which means that he has scored just 158 runs in his last 8 ODI innings. 

Imam and Rizwan guide Pakistan to victory

Imam ul Haq continued his brilliant form at Lahore with a half-century. This was the opener’s 4th half-century plus score in the last four ODI innings. Babar Azam was the second Pakistani batter to be dismissed as he was bowled by a ball that remained very low from Taskin Ahmed. It was smooth sailing for the ‘Men in Green’ after Babar’s dismissal as the 85-run stand between Mohammad Rizwan and Imam guided Pakistan to a victory.  Imam’s crucial knock of 78 runs came to an end when he was bowled by a slider from Mehidy Hasan Miraz. Rizwan reached his half-century as Pakistan defeated Bangladesh by 7 wickets.