Bangladesh defeated Pakistan by five wickets to qualify for the final of the Asia Cup Twenty20 tournament in Dhaka on Wednesday.
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The Tigers will now play India in the March 6 final, rendering the remaining two matches, India-UAE and Pakistan-Sri Lanka, mere formalities.
But Bangladesh’s pace bowlers managed to keep Pakistan to 28-4 before Ahmed and Shoaib Malik shared 70 runs for the fifth wicket. Mohammad Amir then impressed with the ball, but not enough to prevent Pakistan from being knocked out of the competition. Tamim is in form too, having made 267 runs in six innings during the PSL last month. The expected playing eleven for Pakistan are- Sarfraz Ahmed, Mohammad Hafeez, Khurram Manzoor, Sharjeel Khan, Shoaib Malik, Shahid Afridi(C), Umar Akmal, Anwar Ali, Wahab Riaz, Mohammad Amir, Mohammad Irfan.
Afridi, in the post-match presentation congratulated both the finalists and said his team had a lot to work on with the ICC World T20 coming up later this month.
“It’s a big won for us, this was like a semi-final”. (I) told the boys to just grab it, because we knew there would be plenty of such matches in the future.
Pakistan will have to look at their top order because they did not do well in the first two matches that they played and a lot depends upon their middle order because the top order fails they will have to play very well and their bowling attack has been good in the previous matches against UAE and India.
Soumya was unlucky to miss out on a half century as speedster Mohammad Amir bowled him before the opener hit five fours and a six in his run-a-ball innings. “It wasn’t a good total, but the bowlers did superbly”, Afridi said.
Al-Amin Hossain was the chief tormentor for the Pakistanis, bagging three wickets for 25 while Arafat Sunny bagged a brace.
Treading caution with aggression was the need of the hour and Pakistan found the best men for the job in Sarfraz and Shoaib Malik, who led the recovery in a smart fashion.
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They meet Sri Lanka on Friday, in a dead rubber. The other finalists, India, will face the UAE on Thursday.
