MIRPUR: Green Shirts’ journey in Asia Cup 2016 ended up after losing must-win match by five wickets against Bangladesh.
Soumya Sarkar smashed precious 48 off 48 balls with 100.00 strike rate to provide firm stand to his side after early fall of Tamim Iqbal and Sabbir Rahman. Mahmudullah was second top scorer with 22 runs off 15 runs in the crucial minutes of match when Bangladesh went under pressure.
Mohammad Sami’s miss fielding completely turned the situation against Green Shirts when Amir took opponents under pressure after dismissing Shakib Al Hasan. Later, Sami delivered an expensive over by providing opportunity to Bangladesh to make 15 runs with help of two no balls.
Mohammad Amir took two wickets while Shahid Afridi, Mohammad Irfan and Shoaib Malik grabbed one wicket each.
Green Shirts managed to secure a reasonable target against host team of the tournament by collecting 129 runs after loss of seven wickets in the must-win cricket battle.
First order of Green Shirts maintained their tradition of wasting wickets in starting overs, however, experienced batsmen Sarfraz Ahmed not out 58 off 42 balls and Shoaib Malik’s 41 off 30 balls drove Pakistan to set a reasonable target.
Mohammad Hafeez was declared a controversial leg before wicket by the umpire after emergence of decision hawk eye technology.
Al-Amin Hossain became most disastrous bowler for Green Shirts who grabbed three key wickets while Arafat Sunny took two wickets and Taskin Ahmed and Mashrafe Mortaza took one wicket each.
Earlier, Afridi-eleven won the toss and opted to bat first against Bangladesh in the must-win match of Asia Cup 2016 being played at Shere Bangla National Stadium, Mirpur.
Green Shirts made one change as allrounder Anwar Ali replaced Mohammad Nawaz in the crucial match. Whereas, Bangladesh made two changes as Tamim and Arafat Sunny are in, while Nurul Hasan and Mustafizur go out.
Pakistan squad
Mohammad Hafeez, Sharjeel Khan, Khurram Manzoor, Umar Akmal, Shoaib Malik, Sarfraz Ahmed†, Shahid Afridi*, Anwar Ali, Mohammad Sami, Mohammad Amir, Mohammad Irfan
Bangladesh squad
Mashrafe Mortaza*, Abu Hider, Al-Amin Hossain, Arafat Sunny, Imrul Kayes, Mahmudullah, Mohammad Mithun, Mushfiqur Rahim†, Nasir Hossain, Nurul Hasan, Sabbir Rahman, Shakib Al Hasan, Soumya Sarkar, Tamim Iqbal, Taskin Ahmed
