Bangladesh aim to keep series alive against Pakistan

Overview

Bangladesh v Pakistan, 2nd T20ISher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium, Mirpur20 November, 2 PM local time

Bangladesh will have a lot to ponder about after the loss in the first game but do not have too much time as they face Pakistan less than 24 hours after the first game.

The Tigers, with several new faces in the squad after the ICC Men's T20 World Cup, put up a tremendous fight but will be ruing the missed opportunity having had Pakistan's backs against the walls at 24/4 chasing 128.

Bangladesh will be hoping it is not a emerging pattern, given they were in a winning position against Sri Lanka and West Indies in the T20 World Cup before falling away.

The bowlers certainly did their job in yesterday's match, but given how the batters crumbled in the first T20I, Mahmud Ullah might be looking to ring in the changes to strengthen a batting order that was far too conservative in their approach on a good batting surface.

Pakistan, on the other hand, seem to have put the semi-final loss in the T20 World Cup behind them as they showed tremendous grit and determination to win a game from a very difficult situation.

Despite the rare failure of the top order, the middle and lower order put their hands up to give Pakistan a 1-0 lead in the series.

Pakistan will be looking the seal the series in the second game so that they can test their bench strength in the final T20I against Bangladesh.

Though it was not a perfect victory for Pakistan, it is unlikely that Babar Azam will tinker with his line-up for the second T20I.

Remember the last time

Pakistan emerged victorious in a low-scoring encounter in the first game as Bangladesh lost their sixth game on the trot in T20Is.

Electing to bat first, Bangladesh stuttered early on in their innings and were three down inside the Powerplay. In hot and sunny conditions, the Pakistan pacers made life difficult for the batters with whatever little movement the new ball was offering.

Afif Hossain, Nurul Hasan and Mahedi Hasan were the only three batters to reach double figures, with the latter two providing some late impetus to put a target of 128 for Pakistan to chase down. Hasan Ali put the disappointing World Cup semi-final showing behind him and returned with figures of 3/22 in four overs.

Like Bangladesh, Pakistan too faltered early, losing four wickets in the fielding restrictions. Fakhar Zaman and Khushdil Shah, who scored 34 each, strung together a game-changing 56-run partnership before Shadab Khan and Mohammad Nawaz put on a show for the crowd in Dhaka with an unbeaten 36-run stand in just 15 balls to take Pakistan home and give them a 1-0 series lead.

What they said

Pakistan captain Babar Azam after the win in the first game: "The wicket was a bit difficult, not easy to bat on. So the credit goes to our middle order - Fakhar, Khushdil and how Nawaz finished. We could have bowled them earlier, we ended up conceding 15-20 runs extra but that happens in cricket."

Bangladesh captain Mahmud Ullah reflects on the loss: "I think when we chose to bat first, it looked a pretty good wicket to bat on but there was help for bowlers too. Hopefully, we can come up with a better plan tomorrow. It would have been better to get 140 but with 127, we thought if we could get a couple of wickets early on, which our bowlers did, Taskin, Fizz, Mahedi, we were very close but the credit goes to their last two batters."