Pakistan ended their four-match losing streak in the ongoing World Cup on Tuesday (October 31) as they defeated Bangladesh by seven wickets at the Eden Gardens, Kolkata.
Opting to bat first, Bangladesh’s innings folded for a below-par 204 in 45.1 overs. It was a listless batting display as no one managed to play a big knock. Mahmudullah was the top scorer with 56.
For Pakistan, the pace troika of Shaheen Afridi (3-23), Mohammad Wasim Jr (3-31) and Haris Rauf (2-26) produced exceptional spells and shared eight wickets among them.
In reply, Pakistan overhauled the target without breaking a sweat in 32.3 overs. The duo of Fakhar Zaman (81) and Abdullah Shafique (68) set the tone with an opening stand of 128 runs while Mohammad Rizwan (26*) and Iftikhar Ahmed (17*) stayed till the end to seal the deal.
With this loss, Bangladesh became the first team to be officially knocked out of the semi-final race. On the other hand, Babar Azam’s men kept their semi-final hopes alive, albeit depending on the results of other teams.
For their clinical outing against Bangladesh, Pakistan team received rich praise from the cricket fraternity on social media platform X.
Here are the reactions:
