||Desk Report||

Bangladesh and Pakistan are facing each other in a virtual semi-final in the Asia Cup to seal a spot in the final against India. Meanwhile, Bangladesh have received another injury blow after Tamim Iqbal’s ouster, as Shakib Al Hasan, too, has been ruled out of the remainder of the tournament.

Soumya Sarkar started for the Tigers replacing Nazmul Hossain in the opening spot. Mominul Haque replaced the Shakib Al Hasan while Rubel Hossain came in for Nazmul Islam.

Winning the toss, Bangladesh chose to bat first and registered a total of 239 runs losing all of their wickets in 48.5 overs.

Soumya failed to make a memorable comeback to the ODI team as Junaid Khan, who is playing in place of Mohammad Amir, dismissed him for a duck. Shaheen Afridi and Junaid then splendidly bowled out Mominul Haque and Liton Das, respectively, as Bangladesh became three down at 12 runs.

Mushfiqur and Mithun then carefully handled the Pakistan pace duo, before successfully taking on the spinners. With a couple of boundary at the latter part of the batting powerplay and a few overs after it, the batting pair ensured that the run rate did not slip down too much.

The two middle-order batsmen kept the score ticking by dealing in ones and twos and did not go for any unnecessary shots when the opponents kept them from hitting any boundaries in the middle.

Hasan Ali finally gave Pakistan a breakthrough by putting an end to a 144-run stand between Mushfiqur and Mithun. The bowler took advantage of Mithun’s late response to a short delivery and caught and bowled the batsman for 60 runs.

Following Mithun’s departure, Imrul Kayes fell cheaply as Shadab Khan trapped him lbw.

Mushfiqur, on the other hand, missed his seventh ODI century by just one run after once again playing a brilliant knock to steer the Tigers out of danger. He was dismissed by Shaheen.

The lower middle-order and the tailenders of Bangladesh failed to capitalize on the advantage given by the two important knocks from Mushfiqur and Mithun, and failed to lift the total past 250.

Junaid took two more wickets in the death overs to mark his return with a four-fer.

These two sides will not let each other tighten their grip on the must-win contest and hence another fierce battle is all set to get underway during Pakistan’s batting innings at the Sheikh Abu Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi.