Bangladesh lose, yet again
Bangladesh conceded yet another comprehensive defeat in their World Cup campaign as they were beaten by nine wickets against Pakistan at the Eden Gardens, Kolkata on Tuesday.
This is the sixth defeat in the seventh game for Bangladesh and not only their semi-final chances have evaporated, qualifying for the Champions Trophy 2025 is also in jeopardy.
Hosts Pakistan and other top seven teams of the current World Cup will qualify for that tournament.
Bangladesh, who looked completely out of sorts, seemed hapless both with bat and bowl. Apart from winning the toss nothing seemed to work for the side and the things began evident in the very first over when Shaheeen Afridi got rid of Tanzid Hasan without any run on the board.
Mushfiqur Rahim was promoted up the order but he perished soon when the experienced campaigner was caught behind by Mohammad Rizwan of Haris Rauf and Bangladesh were reduced to 23-3 after six overs.
The brightest spell of the match for Bangladesh came after that as Litton Kumer Das and Mahmudullah steadied the ship with assured batting. Litton, who looked stiff early on, started hitting on some boundaries while Mahmudullah, the only centurion for Bangladesh in the tournament, looked comfortable from the beginning batting at five.
Pakistan skipper brought back Shaheen and he delivered a brilliant angled delivery to breach the defence of Mahmudullah who got out for 56.
Towhid Hridoy, who was included in place of Mahedi Hasan, was dismissed softly. Just after hitting a six he edged the next ball of leg-spinner Usama Mir to slip and get out for seven.
Shakib al Hasan looked to resurrect the innings. The skipper struggled initially as he scored just 13 off the first 31 balls but he struck three consecutive fours off the bowling of Iftikhar to keep the runs going. However, he also got out for 43 when he top edged Rauf for an easy catch at short midwicket.
Bangladesh got past 200 thanks to 25 from Miraz but Mohammad Wasim bowled three batters in quick succession to fold the innings for 204.
Pakistan openers eased the chase with a 128-run stand. Fakhar Zaman, who was brought back into the side, struck as many as seven sixes while Shafique preferred boundaries and picked nine of them.
Shafique was the first to go when Miraz trapped him in front for 68. Babar Azam tried to up the run rate but became the second victim of Miraz when he was caught at deep by Mahmudullah for nine.
Fakhar must have felt sad as he missed his century and got dismissed for 81. He tried a slog sweep of Miraz and was caught by Towhid Hridoy after scoring 81 off 74.
Mohammad Rizwan (26) and Iftikhar (17) did the rest as Pakistan won the match in 32.3 overs not only to gain two points to take their tally to six but also improved their net run rate
Pakistan, who lost four consecutive matches after winning the first two, are now in fifth place with eight points.
