Pakistan Defeats Bangladesh by 7 Wickets in Asia Cup

Pakistan has taken the initial stride towards reaching the finals of the tournament. In the batting department, Bangladesh managed to accumulate 193 runs within 38.4 overs. Pakistan, in response, successfully chased down the target by scoring 194 runs while losing three wickets in 39.3 overs, ultimately winning the match by a seven-wicket margin. Bangladesh’s Mushfiqur Rahim contributed 64 runs, while Shakib Al Hasan added 53 runs, with Naeem contributing 20 runs. Pakistan’s Haris Rauf secured four wickets, while Naseem Shah claimed three wickets.

For Pakistan, Imam-ul-Haq displayed an impressive performance, amassing 78 runs, and Mohammad Rizwan remained unbeaten with 63 runs. Taskin, Shoriful, and Mehdi Hasan each took one wicket for Bangladesh.

Haris Rauf , Player of the Match: It was hot out there, but I’ve played a lot of cricket here. I play PSL for Lahore, the crowd always expects us to perform here. Before any game, we do plan as a bowling unit. We talk about bowling to different plans based on the game phase. Hard length was tough to play here, and the plan was to keep bowling stump to stump.

Babar Azam: Too much heat, but full credit to the fast bowlers. First Shaheen and then Haris Rauf. We planned on picking Faheem because we saw the pitches here, there was grass on it and we like that also. Always when we play here, the crowd supports us and I hope all of them enjoyed this match.

Shakib Al Hasan: We lost at the start, they bowled really well and we played some ordinary shots. On a wicket like this, we shouldn’t have lost four wickets in 10 overs. We had a very good partnership, we should have got going for 7-8 overs. After I got out, there were no more partnerships. Very poor batting display on a surface like this. We have to take it on our chin and move to the next one as we have another game in a couple of days.

Imam ul Haq: Not the most fluent innings. The ball was seaming around, but I’m happy because I’ve been working on my backfoot game. We discussed about NRR, we thought we could chase within 36 overs and luckily me and Rizwan had a good partnership, and we could close the game like this.