Pakistan go 1-0 up as Shadab, Nawaz punish poor Bangladesh bowlers at death

Visitors Pakistan went 1-0 up in the T20I series against Bangladesh owing to a tremendous partnership from all-rounders Shadab Khan and Mohammad Nawaz on Friday, 19 November in Dhaka.

Pakistan were walking on thin ice despite restricting Bangladesh for a meagre 127 runs in the first innings after their entire top order went back to the hut for just 24 runs.

After the powerplay debacle, Fakhar Zaman and Khushdil Shah held the reins trying to build up a partnership and taking the game as deep as possible. The Bangladesh bowlers did not offer much to both the batsmen, keeping them quiet till the 15th over of the game. 

Pakistan were 82/5 at that moment having freshly lost Fakhar Zaman (34 off 36), who desperately tried to increase the scoring rate from one end.

With the asking rate bulking up to over 10 runs an over, Khushdil Shah (34 off 35) tried to cut loose but gave away his wicket in the process to Shoriful Islam, who bowled brilliant till that point of the game.

Two quick wickets meant that Bangladesh were comfortably at the top of the game and they would have hoped to seal things off, considering Pakistan found it difficult to judge the pace of the pitch.

However, that was not meant to be as the two fresh batsmen at the crease hammered their way around the poor death bowling from the home team and sealed the game with four wickets and four balls remaining.

Mohammad Nawaz (18 off 8) and Shadab Khan (18 off 7) dismantled the length ball ploy from Fizz and Shoriful in the 18th and 19th over and turned the tides into their favour from the near-impossible odds of 32 from the last 18 balls with just four wickets in hand.

Earlier in the innings, Hasan Ali and Mohammad Wasim Jr bowled in tandem to push Bangladesh back on the backfoot from word go. The home team got reduced to 40/4 inside the first 10 overs and from there they just had to play catch up.

If it was not for their lower-order batsmen, Bangladesh would not have crossed the 100-run threshold.

Speaking after the game, Bangladesh captain Mahmudullah rued the lack of runs and spoke about the brilliance of Shadab and Nawaz. He hoped that Bangladesh will come up with a better plan to seal off the games tomorrow and praised the team for their bowling effort early on in the innings.

Bangladesh are set to play their next game against Pakistan tomorrow, 20 November at the same venue.