Pakistan easily defeated Bangladesh by seven wickets in the first match of the Super Four of Asia Cup 2023.
Pakistan chased down the target of 194 runs in the 40th over at the loss of three wickets, Imam-ul-Haq scored 78 and Mohammad Rizwan scored 63 runs.
Earlier, Bangladesh won the toss and decided to bat first against Pakistan, but the match did not prove to be good for Bangladesh from the beginning.
Played at the Qaddafi Stadium Lahore, Bangladesh team were bowled out for 193 runs in 38.4 overs, Mushfiqur Rahim scored 64 and captain Shakib Al Hasan scored 53 runs.
Fast bowler Haris Rauf took 4 wickets for 19 runs, Naseem Shah took 3 wickets while Shaheen Afridi, Faheem Ashraf and Iftikhar Ahmed took one wicket each.
In the second over of the match, Bangladesh openers Mehdi Hasan Miraz was caught by Fakhar Zaman on Naseem Shah's ball without scoring any runs. Bangladesh suffered the second loss in the form of Liton Das on the fourth ball of the fifth over when Bangladeshi batter Liton Das fell to Shaheen Shah Afridi for 16 runs, after which Bangladesh's next two wickets came in the hands of fast bowler Haris Rauf.
Haris Rauf dismissed opener Mohammad Naeem for 20 and Tawheed Hardoi for just 2 runs.
Bangladesh suffered the fifth loss in the form of captain Shakib Al Hasan, who fell to Faheem Ashraf after scoring 53 runs. Bangladesh's sixth wicket fell for 174 runs against Pakistan when Shamim Hossain was dismissed by Iftikhar Ahmed for 16 runs.
Mushfiqur Rahim scored 64 runs and gave the wicket to Haris Rauf and then the new batter Taskin Ahmed was also dismissed by Haris Rauf for zero.
Naseem Shah took the last two wickets of Bangladesh, Atif Hossain 12 and Sharif Aslam returned to the pavilion after scoring one run.
Bangladesh were bowled out for 193 runs in 38.4 overs.
In the second over of the match, Bangladesh openers Mehdi Hasan Miraz was caught by Fakhar Zaman off Naseem Shah without scoring any runs. Bangladesh suffered the second loss in the form of Liton Das on the fourth ball of the fifth over when Bangladeshi batter Liton Das fell to Shaheen Shah Afridi for 16 runs, after which Bangladesh's next two wickets came in the hands of fast bowler Haris Rauf.Chasing bangladesh's target of 194 runs, Pakistan started their innings and when they scored 5 runs without any loss in 15 overs, a light tower was closed during Pakistan's innings at Gaddafi Stadium Lahore.
Due to the closure of the light tower, the game was stopped for some time, the players left the field due to the stoppage of play. However, play resumed after 18 minutes of stoppage.
Both openers gave the team a start of 35 runs but then Fakhar Zaman once again failed to play a big innings and was lbw for 20 runs.
Pakistan suffered the second loss in the form of captain Babar, he scored only 17 runs and was bowled by Taskin Ahmed. In such a situation, Imam-ul-Haq and Rizwan batted brilliantly.
But then Imam-ul-Haq was bowled out for 78 off 84 balls while Rizwan scored an unbeaten 63 runs. Apart from this, Salman Ali Agha scored 12 runs, thus Pakistan achieved the target in 39.3 overs at the loss of 3 wickets.
