Pakistan overcomes all obstacles to go to the T20 World Cup semifinals.
Shaheen Afridi ‘Man of The Match’; Will face Kiwis in first semi final
Iqbal Jamil
ADELAIDE: Before today’s crucial match against Bangladesh, which Pakistan won by 5 wickets in Adelaide on Sunday, Pakistan team was under pressure and the leadership of Babar Azam was questioned.
Before today’s match against Bangladesh the Pakistan’s equation to reach semi-final was that Netherlands should beat South Africa and then Pak wins against Bangladesh and Zimbabwe defeats India. All this seemed very bizarre.
But miracles do happen and it happened when Netherlands having 17th position in ICC ranking shockingly defeated South Africa by 13 runs which paved the way for Pakistan to reach the last four.
Shaheen Shah Afridi and Mohammad Haris performance led to the victory as Pakistan chased the target of 128 in 18.1 overs. Pakistan in power play scored 35 runs whereas Bangladesh made 40 for the loss of one wicket. Babar and Rizwan played cautiously and at one stage the match was evenly poised.
After the dismissal of Babar and Rizwan the momentum was built by Mohammad Haris who played a match winning innings of 31 runs in just 18 balls. Shan Masood scored 24 runs in 14 deliveries and remained unbeaten.
In the crucial match Bangladesh opted to bat first on a difficult wicket and managed to score 127 runs for the loss of 8 wickets. Najmul Hossain Shanto made 54 runs of 48 deliveries and Afif Hossain remained unbeaten for 24.
Shaheen Shah Afridi bowled with full rhythm first time in the contest and was unplayable in the second spell. He took 4 wickets for 22 runs.
Bangladesh fielding was not up to the mark and they were unlucky when skipper Shakib ul Hasan was given out LBW with TV replays showing that there was a nick of the bat before hitting the pad.
Pakistan will meet New Zealand in the first Semi-Final on Wednesday.
