CRICKET
T20: Bowlers and Fakhar take Pakistan to series victory
The bowlers restricted Bangladesh on just 108 runs to give Pakistan an easy target to chase down and gain an unassailable 2-0 lead in the T20 series.
It was a great series win for Pakistan as winning a series against Bangladesh at their home is not an easy task.
In recent times, we have seen big teams like Australia and New Zealand struggling and losing series in Bangladesh, so it was a great effort by the Pakistani side.
Bangladesh again started very badly as they lost their top two wickets in the first two overs of the innings.
Shaheen Afridi again picked up a wicket in his very first over as he dismissed Saif Hasan on the fifth ball of his 1st over.
M. Wasim jr bowled the second over and he also picked up a wicket in his first over.
Wasim dismissed the 2nd opener M. Naim, who was caught by Fakhar Zaman in the slips.
Afif Hossain and Najmul Hossain Shanto rescued their side a bit by building a small but effective partnership.
Both of them batted solidly but when the stand (46 runs) was looking good, Afif Hossain played a very bad shot and gifted his wicket to Shadab Khan.
Poor finish by Bangladeshi batters
Bangladesh was 3 down for 64 runs in 10 overs but they were still looking good to score at least 140 plus runs.
However, the Pakistani bowlers made a great comeback and bowled beautifully in the last 10 overs.
Bangladesh scored their lowest number of runs in the last ten overs in a T20 international (when they have faced all the 60 deliveries).
They only managed to hit two boundaries in that period, as the Pakistan bowlers used their variations brilliantly.
Bangladesh scored just 44 runs with the loss of 4 wickets in the last 10 overs of their innings.
Bowlers shine for Pakistan
Shadab Khan and Shaheen Afridi were the leading wicket-takers for Pakistan in the innings as both of them picked up two wickets each.
M. Wasim jr also bowled a brilliant spell, he picked up 1 wicket for just 9 runs in 3 overs.
Shadab Khan has bowled brilliantly against the left-handers in this T20I series so far.
He has given just 18 runs off 25 balls, picking up three wickets.
In the first match, Bangladesh’s left-handers found him too difficult to pick, scoring only three runs off his 11 balls.
An easy chase for Pakistan
It was a very easy chase for Pakistan and it never looked difficult for Pakistan to chase down this total.
Pakistan lost their skipper Babar Azam very early in their innings but it didn’t put any pressure on Fakhar Zaman and M. Rizwan as both of them played superb innings.
Rizwan played well for his side, scoring 39 runs off 45 balls.
Fakhar Zaman smashed a brilliant half-century, he remained not out on 57 runs off 51 balls including 3 sixes and 2 fours.
Rizwan and Fakhar made a superb partnership of 85 runs.
Rizwan was dismissed when his side was just 12 runs away from victory.
Pakistan chased down the total very easily in 18.1 overs with still 8 wickets in hand.
Pakistan has won this series already and now they will be looking to complete a clean sweep by winning the last match of this series.
Pakistan 109 for 2 (Fakhar 57*, Rizwan 39) beat Bangladesh 108 for 7 (Shanto 40, Afif 20, Afridi 2-15, Shadab 2-22) by eight wickets