Sports Desk : dhakamirror.com
Bangladesh’s hopes of making it to the Asia Cup final were dashed by a poor batting display, as they lost to Pakistan by 11 runs in their final Super Four match at the Dubai International Stadium on Thursday.
In this virtual semi-final, Bangladesh needed to chase down a target of 136 runs but managed to score only 124-9 in their 20 overs.
Pakistan will now face India in the final on Sunday, for the first time in Asia Cup history.
Bangladesh lost three wickets inside the powerplay, including the key wicket of Saif Hassan.
Liton Das missed this game as well due to his side strain injury.
Parvez Hossain and Towhid Hridoy were undone by Shaheen Afridi, while Saif was the victim of Haris Rauf. Saif made 18 with two sixes.
Bangladesh sent Mahedi Hasan early, but that didn’t work out, as he was out for 11 off 10.
Nurul Hasan struggled throughout his innings of 16 off 21 before falling to Saim Ayub. Stand-in captain Jaker Ali tried hard before becoming the second scalp of Saim.
Bangladesh’s final hope was then hanging on Shamim Hossain’s shoulder, but an attempted reverse lap off Afridi brought his end.
The left-hander made 30 off 25 before leaving Bangladesh on the brink.
Rishad Hossain remained unbeaten on 16 off 11 but couldn’t get his team over the line.
Earlier, Bangladesh had an excellent powerplay after choosing to bowl first, as Pakistan were 27-2 after the first six overs.
Taskin Ahmed, who was among the three changes Bangladesh had made, struck early to dismiss Sahibzada Farhan in the fourth ball of the innings.
After Mahedi had Saim in the second over, Rishad’s consecutive wickets put Pakistan under huge pressure when they became 33-4 in the ninth over.
Soon it was 49-5 when Mustafizur Rahman had Pakistan skipper Salman Agha.
Afridi, who was sent at number seven, struck two sixes with the help of two dropped catches before Mohammad Haris and Mohammad Nawaz added 38 runs—the highest of the innings—for the seventh wicket.
Fahim Ashraf, who made 14 off nine, helped Pakistan to post a total to fight with.
In the end, that was more than enough to set up an India-Pakistan final.
