At the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore on Wednesday, the Pakistani pace trio of Shaheen Afridi, Haris Rauf, and Naseem Shah wreaked havoc on Bangladesh in the opening Super Four match of the Asia Cup 2023.
Shakib-Al-Hasan, the captain of Bangladesh, couldn’t help but compliment the Green Shirts’ young and deadly pace attack while also talking about the errors his team committed throughout their batting.
“We played some banal shots at the beginning and lost early wickets. On a wicket like this, we shouldn’t lose four wickets in the first ten overs, but it does. Even though our partnership was strong, we still needed to bat for 7-8 more overs. On a surface like this, the batting performance was quite poor, but we must go on to the next one, Shakib added.
The 36-year-old went on praising Pakistan’s pacers while also disclosing what he thinks the team is missing.
“These are the reasons why they [Pakistan] are the best team in the world. They are having things made easier for them by three elite bowlers. Although our batting has been erratic, we have been doing well in the bowling area.
“We must be more consistent. Our three seamers, in my opinion, bowled superbly. Our seamers have been bowling exceptionally well over the past few years, much like Pakistan’s. Unfortunately, you can’t get wickets on a pitch like this until players make mistakes.
“[On playing in SL] Pitches were a little slow, wickets were a little up and down, and that should help us,” the player said. Therefore, let’s hope we succeed in Colombo.
Imam-ul-Haq and Mohammad Rizwan’s seasoned innings were a key factor in Pakistan’s seven-wicket victory over Bangladesh.
Imam scored the most runs for the victorious team, scoring 78 off of 84, which included nine boundaries.
While Rizwan, who entered the match when Pakistan was down 74-2, amassed 63 runs in addition to a vital 85-run partnership with Imam.
As Bangladesh was all out for 193 runs while batting first in the first innings, Pakistani bowlers kept up their outstanding performance.
Haris Rauf produced an excellent spell of 19/4 in six overs while confusing Bangladesh’s batting sequence.
Shaheen Afridi recorded one wicket, compared to Naseem Shah’s three.
