Pakistan has the best bowling line up in T20 World Cup. Against Bangladesh their batting clicked. They comprehensively defeated Bangladesh.

Pakistan outplayed Bangladesh in Eden Gardens.

After a long time Pakistan won T20 match against Bangladesh with a margin of 55 runs. It was a comprehensive victory.

The match was played in Eden Gardens on 16th March, 2016. In the recently finished Asia Cup Pakistan played wayward cricket.

 

From that time it was a much better performance against Bangladesh. Pakistan scored 201 runs in 20 overs after batting first. Hafeez scored 62 runs. Shehzad scored 52 runs.

After a long time ShahidAfridi struck form with 49 runs. Batting was the biggest worry for Pakistan. When batting clicked it was easy for Pakistani bowlers to contain Bangladesh.

Bangladeshi bowlers found life difficult in Eden Gardens, Kolkata. Taskin, Al Amin, Shakib Al Hassan could not show any variation in bowling in batting friendly wicket.

It was an impossible task for Bangladesh. Things went wrong. Soumya Sarkar got bowled out in the ball of Mohammad Amir for a duck. They could not recover from the shock. Tamim also failed. Shabbir tried his part. But he also perished in the ball of ShahidAfridi in his 20s. It was not possible for him to play big shots as he is a wristy bat. He scored 25 runs but could not bring the team anywhere close to the target.

So a lot depended on the hard hits of Mahmadullah who also perished early. Shakib Al Hassan played a good innings and scored 50 runs of 40 balls. But that steady innings could not take Bangladesh close to a contest in the match.

At the end Bangladesh scored only 145 runs and lost the match by 55 runs. Captain Mortaza hit an over boundary and boundary but it was too late. It was a one-sided match.

Pakistan probably has the best bowling side in international cricket. Mohammad Amir is the fastest bowler of the tournament bowling at a speed of 150 kilometers per hour. Mohammad Irfan is the tallest left arm fast bowler of the tournament. His height above 7 feet had created problems for many batsmen around the world.

WahabRiyaz had also been good left arm fast bowler bowling at a speed of 145 kilometers per hour. ShahidAfridi got 2 wickets with his leg spin bowling. Whenever he batted well he always bowled well. Bangladesh made another mistake in taking risks against part time spinners like Shoaib Malik. So when Pakistan had the runs in the board it was easy for the bowlers to win the match for them.

Another factor which did not go at all in Bangladesh favour was the type of the wicket. In Bangladesh, the Mirpur, Dhaka wicket was green favouring the fast bowlers. Bangladeshi bowlers like Taskin, Al Amin did a great job in the Asia Cup in those wickets. In India the wickets are mix package. While the Nagpur wicket was slow turner, the Kolkata wicket was batsman friendly where strokes could be played with ease. In those conditions, Taskin, Al Amin in the first match could not show variation. These are conditions where the slower deliveries, inswing Yorkers could help a lot. There was less swing in the pitches, but Yorkers could definitely slow down the scoring rates.

Pakistan for the first time in last 2 months showed application. Hafeez had been out of runs for more than a year. So in the first 6 overs, his poor performance resulted in Pakistan’s fall. In the first match versus Bangladesh in the Eden Gardens he scored 62 runs. That made a huge difference. He steadied the ship.

Shehzad scored a half –century and the first 3 batsmen helped Pakistan to score 100 runs having majority of wickets in hand. From there they never looked back. ShahidAfridi’s powerful hits made the difference. His 49 runs in quick time made a difference of 35 odd runs and Pakistan landed up with a massive total of 201 runs.

The 55 runs will go a long way in deciding the winning teams from group A. As only 2 teams will qualify for semi-finals and the difference between teams like India, Pakistan, Australia and New Zealand being very low, the net run rate will have big role to play in deciding the qualifying teams. So Bangladesh messed up in the first match and Pakistan increased the chances of going to semi-finals.

One good thing about Bangladesh lies in increasing their quality and standard in T20s. Bangladesh at one point of time used to play only against weak teams like Netherlands, Ireland, Zimbabwe, Oman and other teams.

By playing against top teams like India, Pakistan, Australia, New Zealand their own standard will definitely change.

It is important that Pakistan come back to form. There was a time in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Pakistan was best team in the world. Not only the fast bowling attack consisting of Imran Khan, WasimAkram, WaqarYounis, AquibJaved tore every batting unit, the batting standard was also of substance.

JavedMiandad, Salim Malik, InzamamUlHaq, Saeed Anwar could fit in any best batting attack in the world. There were world class all-rounders like Abdul Razzaq, AzharMahmood. There were great leg spinners like Abdul Qadir, off-spinners like SaqlainMustaq.

From there the new bowling unit of Mohammad Irfan, Mohammad Amir,

WahabRiyaz maintained the bowling standard. But batting had gone down miserably. Especially when India presently boasts about best batting line up in the world with the likes of ViratKohli, ShikharDhawan, Rohit Sharma, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Pakistani batsmen neither have class nor experience.

In the T20 world cup it is important for Pakistan to bat well. If they bat well, they will give a contest for the other teams. Another area for worry for Pakistan is their dismal fielding. India had improved their fielding with fast fielders like ViratKohli, RavindraJadeja, Suresh Raina, ShikharDhawan who can catch well and cause run-outs.

The tournament had just started and there is a lot of cricket to come. So it is interesting to see how Pakistan plays against India in the match on 19th March at Eden Gardens, Kolkata.