CRICKET
T20: Pakistan complete 3-0 sweep
Pakistan beat Bangladesh in a last ball thriller to complete a clean sweep.
Pakistan was ahead of Bangladesh most of the time in this match but Bangladesh put up a great fight in the last three overs.
Bangladesh 124-7 in 20 overs
M. Naim 47 (50) M. Wasim 2-15
Shamim 22 (23) U. Qadir 2-35
Afif 20 (21) Dahani 1-24
Pakistan 127-5 in 20 overs
Haider 45 (38) Mahmudullah 3-10
Rizwan 40 (43) Aminul Islam 1-26
Babar 19 (25) Shahidul 1-33
It was the same story once again that we have seen in the previous two games.
Bangladesh won the toss and elected to bat first, lost the first wicket early and didn’t score quick runs in the power play.
They built up some small partnerships but failed to capitalise on them and scored very few runs in the death overs.
Thus, ended their innings with a very low score.
M.Naim and Shamim Hossain had a measly 30 run stand after losing their first wicket in only 2nd over.
Shamim who was looking good was dismissed on 22 runs in the 8th over of the innings.
Afif Hossain then joined M.Naim and both of them were looking in good touch.
Naim scored 47 runs off 50 balls while Afif made 20 runs off 21 balls including two brilliant sixes in Usman Qadir’s over.
Their 43 runs stand was broken by Usman Qadir who was playing this match in place of Shadab Khan today.
Pakistan’s Chase
Pakistan looked comfortable when they started the chase.
The openers made a 32 runs stand before Babar was dismissed on just 19 runs and it was his 3rd consecutive failure in this series.
The leading run-scorer of this year, M. Rizwan again played an important innings and he built up a good partnership with Haider Ali to put Pakistan in a commanding position.
After Rizwan’s dismissal, Haider Ali smashed two big sixes in the 16th over to remove all the pressure.
Pakistan needed just 19 runs off the final 18 balls but the Bangladeshi bowlers were still fighting.
Taskin and Shahidul bowled superbly in the 18th and 19th over giving just 4 and 7 runs respectively.
Pakistan needed 8 runs of the final over with 8 wickets in hand.
The final over drama
Pakistan made yet another easy chase very interesting in the end.
8 runs were required off the final over and the Bangladeshi skipper, Mahmudullah stepped up and decided to bowl the final over.
Sarfraz Ahmad faced the first delivery and failed to sweep the ball.
He succeeded in the second delivery but played a slog-sweep straight into the hands of deep midwicket fielder.
He was dismissed after scoring just 6 runs off 12 balls.
Haider Ali played the 3rd delivery and smashed the ball very hard but was caught at long-on.
The pressure was shifted to Pakistan and now they required 8 runs off 3 balls.
Iftikahar Ahmad played the hat-trick delivery and he launched his first ball over long-off for a huge six.
The pressure was back on Bangladesh due to this mighty hit but the drama doesn’t end here as Iftikhar swung the bat again but this time he got a thick edge and was caught at backward point.
2 runs were required on 1 delivery and there was complete madness in the stadium.
Mahmudullah released the final ball but Nawaz then pulled out.
The ball went to hit the stumps but it was given a dead ball.
Finally, Nawaz smashed a four over extra cover to get his side over the line to complete their clean sweep.
Pakistan brilliant in the death again
Pakistan was again brilliant in the death overs.
This enabled them to restrict Bangladesh under 125 runs.
The top two wicket-takers of 2021, Shaheen and Hasan Ali were not playing this match but the young fast bowlers of Pakistan did a great job.
M. Wasim was brilliant in the whole series and he again picked up two important wickets today.
On the other hand, the debutant Shahnawaz Dahani also bowled well and picked up his first wicket on the 3rd ball of his very first over in T20 internationals.