Another thrilling showdown has ended tonight. Pakistan and Bangladesh locked horns at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata. This clash was important for both teams. At the end of the day, Pakistan ended the match on a winning note. With this defeat, Bangladesh was knocked out of the tournament. After losing consecutive matches, Pakistan registered a remarkable win. This win kept the semi-final hope alive for Pakistan. Pakistan dominated the opponent in both innings.
Player of the Match’s Words:
It was a must-win game for Pakistan to qualify for the semi-finals. Pakistan finally got their desired win after so many defeats. Pakistan batters batted extremely well in this tournament. They dominated the Bangladeshi bowlers in the whole inning. Except for Mehidy Hasan, every other bowler remained wicket-less. Among all the Pakistan batters, Fakhar Jaman shined the brightest. He played a knock of 81 runs in 74 balls. His innings consisted of 3 boundaries and 7 over-boundaries.
Because of this outstanding performance, he was awarded Player of the Match. In the award ceremony, he talked about his innings and the match. He said, “ After the Asia Cup, I practiced a lot on my batting, I was looking good at the camp and was looking forward to the team. Today, my hard work paid off after I was given a chance. I told Abdullah that I would see off the first few overs, O knew I could hit big sixes. My role is to make it easy for my partner, so it was important to see off the first few overs and then play my shots. NRR was in our mind after we reached 100, the aim was to finish it off in 30 overs. I had too many failures, I was looking towards such a knock and hopefully, I’ll make bigger scores in the next few games.”
Match Summary:
It was a crucial match for both teams. Bangladesh won the toss and decided to bat first. While batting first, Bangladesh lost an early wicket. Litton Das scored 45 runs in 64 balls. Mahmudullah played a knock of 56 runs in 70 balls. Shakib Al Hasan scored 43 runs in 64 balls. They got all out on 204 runs.
Pakistani bowlers shine the brightest. Shaheen Afridi picked up 3 wickets in 23 runs. Mohammad Wasim jr took 3 wickets in 31 runs. Haris Rauf picked up 2 wickets in 36 runs. Iftikhar Ahmed and Usama Mir took one wicket each.
In the second innings, Pakistani batters gave an excellent start. Abdullah Shafique scored 68 runs in 69 balls. Fakhar Zaman was outstanding. He played a knock of 81 runs in 74 balls. Pakistan skipper Babar Azam got out on 9 runs. Mohammad Rizwan remained not out on 26 runs and Iftikhar Ahmed remained unbeaten on 17 runs. They won the match by 7 wickets. With this win, Bangladesh’s hope for qualifying remains alive.
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