A power-packed batting from Ahmed Shehzad and Mohammad Hafeez helped Pakistan put up a massive 201 for 5 against Bangladesh in Match 14 of ICC T20 World Cup 2016 at Eden Gardens, Kolkata. Pakistan played their first match of the tournament against Bangladesh and the much talked about Pakistan batting clicked in time to take the score to 202. Both Hafeez and Shehzad scored their individual half-centuries while another crucial knock came from skipper Shahid Afridi that helped Pakistan register their highest ever World T20 and second highest Twenty20 International (T20I) score. Live Cricket Scorecard: Pakistan vs Bangladesh,14th T20 Match, Super 10 Group 2, ICC T20 World Cup 2016
Winning the toss Pakistan skipper Shahid Afridi wasted to time and elected to bat. Sharjeel Khan and Ahmed Shehzad opened batting for Pakistan while Taskin Ahmed opened bowling for Bangladesh. The first boundary came from Shehzad in the very first over but it was Sharjeel Khan who went all guns blazing from the very start, hitting back to back sixes in the second over. Sharjeel departed making 18 but his innings put the Bangladesh bowlers under pressure. Shehzad kept going on along with Mohammad Hafeez with sensible cricket, taking their time, waiting for the right delivery to hit it for the big ones. Hafeez started off with a six but built a much needed partnership that helped Pakistan get to the total.
The partnership between Hafeez and Shehzad remained to be the most crucial one as they went on to add 95 runs. Shehzad, after being dropped and re-included to the side, proved his worth scoring 52 off 39. Skipper Shahid Afridi promoted himself up the order and came out at No. 4. From there on, Hafeez and Afridi maintained the same run rate and took things forward. Afridi looked in a great touch as he punished each and every bowler hitting them all over Eden Gardens. Hafeez departed making a crucial 64 and departed as Soumya Sarkar took a brilliant catch at deep mid-wicket. Sarkar picked up the catch from over the ropes, threw it back to balanced himself and gripped it back to get the danger-man out.
Shahid Afridi looked unstoppable today as he scored a quickfire 49 off 19 balls that powered Pakistan even more towards the huge total and pushed it beyond 180. Afridi hit 4 fours and 4 sixes and the innings not only remained crucial for the match but his comeback to form is another positive for Pakistan.
The Bangladesh bowling attack failed entirely, except Arafat Sunny. The two most effective bowlers for Bangladesh, failed against Pakistan as they gave away too many runs. The most successful bowlers were Taskin Ahmed and Arafat Sunny, who bagged a couple of wickets each. Al-Amin Hossain remained wicketless while Sabbir Rahman picked up one giving away 11 runs.
Brief scores:
Paksitan 201 for 5 in overs 20 ( Ahmed Shehzad 52, Mohammad Hafeez 64, Shahid Afridi 49; Taskin Ahmed 2 for 32) against Bangladesh
(Paulami Chakraborty, a singer, dancer, artist, and photographer, loves the madness of cricket and writes about the game. She can be followed on Twitter at @Polotwitts)
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