Pakistan Made To Work Hard Before Routing Bangladesh

Pakistan Made To Work Hard Before Routing BangladeshPakistan beat Bangladesh by five wickets with Shahid Afridi playing a starring performances

Pakistan 93-5 (Shahid Afridi 24no) beat
Bangladesh 91 (Shahid Afridi 5-23) by 5 wickets
First One-Day International, Dhaka
Scorecard

Pakistan were made to work hard but eventually another dominant performance from Shahid Afridi carried them to a 20th consecutive One-Day International victory over Bangladesh in Dhaka.

Afridi took five for 23 and then top scored with 24 not out as Pakistan closed on 93 for five in 25.4 overs after Bangladesh had managed to hit just 91 before being dismissed for their second lowest score against Pakistan on their way to a five-wicket defeat.

Pakistan then slumped to 63 for five to briefly raise hopes of an unlikely home win but they were extinguished by a brisk unbroken 30-run partnership between Afridi and captain Misbah-ul-Haq, who was unbeaten on 16 in 46 balls.

Bangladesh won the toss and chose to bat but were quickly in big trouble, losing Tamim Iqbal to Mohammad Hafeez before a run had been scored and quickly collapsing to 31 for five as Naeem Islam (5), Mushfiqur Rahim (11), Shahriar Nafees (7) and Mahmudullah (1) were also dismissed.

Shakib Al Hasan and Nasir Hossain tried to rebuild the innings, scoring 15 and 21 respectively before both were guilty of playing loose shots to give their wickets away and expose the tail.

Afridi made short work of the lower order and but for Rubel Hossain's unbeaten 15 in ten balls, Bangladesh would have set an unwanted new low score against the disciplined Pakistan side.

Afridi's haul saw him become only the second player after Sanath Jayasuriya to have scored 6,000 runs and taken 300 ODI wickets.

The tourists then progressed seamlessly to 36 before Imran Farhat was bowled by Nasir as he chopped on to his stumps for 15 and they then lost three wickets for two runs when Hafeez (22), Younus Khan (2) and Sarfraz Ahmed (2) departed in quick succession to almost throw the game open.

Misbah then dug in to prevent Bangladesh's advance and despite Shakib producing a belting delivery to clean bowl Umar Akmal for seven, his defiance allied with some controlled aggressive hitting from Afridi steered Pakistan into a deserved 1-0 lead in the three-match series.

A spirited performance with the ball saw Shakib return two for 42 and Rubel, who removed Hafeez and Sarfaz, two for 23.

The next game is in 3rd December at the same venue.