Hapless Bangladesh sink deeper in losing run; surrender T20I series with one game remaining

Bangladesh cricket team lost their seventh T20 International on the bounce to surrender the three match series against visitors Pakistan. Known to be a tough cookie at home conditions, Bangladesh crumbled under the quality bowling attack of Pakistan once again and failed to put up a defendable total for two matches in a row.

Batting first in both matches at Dhaka, Bangladesh put up 127 runs in their first game, and scored a meagre 108/7 on Saturday evening. Coming into the defence of the total, the Bangladesh bowlers started the second innings on a great note, removing Babar Azam very early in the innings. The Pakistan batsmen found it difficult to play their shots against pacers who were extracting good carry from the pitch, but Mohammad Rizwan (39 off 45) and Fakhar Zaman saw the tough phase through.

The pitch became really sluggish in the latter half of the innings with batsmen finding it very difficult to play their shots, but Fakhar Zaman toiled hard and stayed there till the end to see off the game. He top-scored for Pakistan with 57 off 51 balls.

Earlier in the innings, Bangladesh batters were once again rattled by the Pakistan pace attack early in the innings. Both their openers, Mohammad Naim Sheikh (2 off 8) and Saif Hassan (0 off 1) had no clue about what was going on and could not provide the home team with any sort of tempo. The pace trio of Shaheen Shah Afridi, Haris Rauf and Mohammad Wasim Jr. were all among wickets, picking up four between the three of them. 

However, it was Shadab Khan who was the shining star of the Pakistan bowling line up dismissing the dangerous Afif Hossain and a set Najmul Hasan Shanto to break the back of the Bangladesh line-up.

With that win, Pakistan continued their strong performance in the shortest format of the game and won the T20I series with a match remaining. 

The next fixture will be played on Monday, 22 November.