Dhaka Journal : Tigers have crushed Pakistan by five wickets to reach Asia Cup final at Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium at Mirpur in city on Wednesday.
Winning the toss, Pakistan skipper Shahid Afridi captain elected to bat first and scored 129-run losing seven wickets from their 20-over quota.
Soumya Sarkar’s 48-run knock off 48 balls has made Tigers steady to chase down the 130-run target.
He hit three boundaries and a maximum before the departure in an M Amir delivery.
Bangladesh bowlers Al-Amin Hossain bagged three wickets. Besides, Arafat Sunny took two crucial wickets while, Taskin Ahmed and Mashrafe Mortaza picked up one wicket each in the first innings.
On the other hand, Sarfraz Ahmed scored 58 runs facing 42 balls while; Shoaib Malik scored 41 runs for Pakistan.
Soumya Sarkar won the Man of the Match title for his solid 48.
Mortaza: “It`s a big win for us, this was like a semi-final. Told the boys to just grab it, because we knew there would be plenty of such matches in the future. There was a bit of pressure in the middle, but we coped well. Final will be another pressure game, the trick is to just back each other. It`s a pleasure for us to play at home, thanks to the crowd for coming out in supporting us. Hopefully they`ll continue to do that.”
Afridi: “I want to congratulate India and Bangladesh for qualifying for the final. We made too many mistakes. It wasn`t a good total, but the bowlers did superbly. We have to do something very special (at the World T20) because ours is a tough group. We`ve given youngsters plenty of opportunities, what else can you do? Sri Lanka is an important game, a win there will be good for our morale.”
Bangladesh Squad: 1 Tamim Iqbal, 2 Soumya Sarkar, 3 Sabbir Rahman, 4 Mushfiqur Rahim, 5 Shakib Al Hasan, 6 Mahmudullah, 7 Nurul Hasan (wk), 8 Mashrafe Mortaza (capt), 9 Al-Amin Hossain, 10 Abu Hider, 11 Taskin Ahmed
Pakistan Squad: 1 Sharjeel Khan, 2 Mohammad Hafeez, 3 Khurram Manzoor, 4 Umar Akmal, 5 Shoaib Malik, 6 Shahid Afridi (capt), 7 Sarfraz Ahmed (wk), 8 Mohammad Sami, 9 Mohammad Amir, 10 Mohammad Nawaz, 11 Mohammad Irfan.
Dhaka Journal, MAR 02, 2016.
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