With an utterly bleak chance to reach the semi-finals of the ongoing ICC World Cup, Pakistan were still hoping against hope to score a mammoth target, and crush Bangladesh by an impossible margin of 300 at least to get to the desired spot. However, Pakistan did manage to cease a victory by 94 runs but still it did not get them into the semi’s, as both the neighbouring nations left the exited from the World Cup on a high note.
In a unique situation set forth by the last few match results, Bangladesh had an uncanny chance to eliminate Pakistan from the semi-finals race in the toss itself, but Pakistan managed to win the toss and opted to bat. Pakistan’s hope of scoring a huge run seemed to be faltering with the early wicket of Fakhar Zaman. However, with Imam-ul-Haq (100 out; 100b; 7X4) and Babar Azam (96 out; 98b; 11X4) coming to crease, Pakistan were really cruising towards a big target on board, as they contributed 157 runs partnership to take Pakistan close to 200 mark within 30 overs. Azam falling short of his century by 4 runs, awarded a discreet chance to Bangladesh to make a comeback to the game. Bangladesh taking the chance and Mohammad Saifuddin with 3 wickets and Mustafizur Rahman with his 5-wicket haul, restricted Pakistan to 315 with the loss of 9 wickets. After Imam-ul-Haq and Babar Azam’s departure the rest of the team severely failed to contribute to the total, just Imad Wasim (43 out; 26b; 6X4, 1X6) delivering a cameo at the deep, to boost the score up the 300 mark.
Pakistan needed to scalp Bangladesh’s wickets as quick as possible and dismissing Tamim Iqbal (8 out; 21b) early in the game gave back some hope to the side, but Shakib-al-Hasan (64 out; 77b; 6X4) was slowly taking the game away from Pakistan. Though Shakib kept the hope alive for Bangladesh, but the rest of the team severely faltered in front of the young Shaheen Afridi, who steered Pakistan to a well-deserved victory with his 6-wicket haul with a brilliant spell and economy rate of 3.85. Pakistan bowling left no stones unturned to get to the victory, while Bangladesh crumbled under their pressure, but again Shakib-al-Hasan along with his team delivering an equally worthy fight, as both of the neighbouring countries left the World Cup 2019 on a high note.
