Bangladesh concede defeat to Pakistan
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Dhaka: Bangladesh conceded a two-wicket defeat to Pakistan in the ICC Champions Trophy warm-up match at Edgbaston, Birmingham, England on Saturday.
Pakistan chased down a big target of 342 for 8 in 49.3 overs with a stunning unbeaten 9th stand of 93 in 6.5 overs between Fahim Ashraf and Hasan Ali. Fahim and Hasan started from 249/8 in 42.4 overs and carried the team ashore.
Fahim quick-fired 64* off 30 balls, including four boundaries and four over boundaries, while Hasan added 27* off 15 balls with two fours and one six.
Besides the 9th pair contribution, Pakistan innings spurred by their three partnership figures of 59, 79 and 59 runs in the 6th, 4th and 3rd wicket stands.
On the way to top-scoring 72 off 66 balls, Shoaib Malik stayed with Imad Wasim for a partnership innings of 10.1 overs in the 6th stand and played another partnership innings of 12.3 overs with Mohammad Hafeez in the 4th pair.
Shoaib Malik fired six boundaries and two over boundaries and was caught by Imrul Kayes off Mehedi Hasan Miraz at 227/6 in 38.3 overs.
Mohammad Hafeez (49 off 62b; 6x4) fell short of a single run as he was caught by Imrul Kayes off Shafiul Islam leaving the team total at 157/4 in 26 overs.
Bangladesh's bowlers captured Pakistan's two top-order batsmen -- Azhar Ali (8) and Babar Azam (1) -- for 19 in 4.2 overs, but the 3rd pair between another opening batsman Ahmed Shehzad and Mohammad Hafeez repaired the early loss contributing 59 in 9.1 overs, carrying the team total to 78/3 in 13.3 overs.
Shakib Al Hasan bowled out Ahmed Shehzad (44 off 40b; 5x4; 1x6) to break the 3rd stand.
Imad Wasim was another notable scorer with 45 off 50 balls, including four boundaries.
Pace bowler Taskin Ahmed made the first breakthrough for Bangladesh dismissing opener Azhar at 14 in 3.2 overs while skipper Mashrafe Bin Mortaza showed the way out to Babar at 19/2 in 4.2 overs. Both the batter - Azhar and Babar -- were caught behind by keeper Mushfiqur Rahim.
Miraz bagged two wickets for 30 runs in four overs while Mosaddek, Shakib, Shafiul,
Mashrafe and Taskin took one wicket each for 29, 41, 46, 68 and 80 runs respectively.
Earlier, a turbo-charged innings from dashing opener Tamim Iqbal (102) and a sensible innings of Imrul Kayes (61) helped the Tigers collect 341 for 9 in 50 overs, after electing to bat first.
Besides their individual performances, the two left-handers Tamim and Kayes shared a praiseworthy innings of 142 in 20.2 overs in the 2nd stand.
Tamim featured nine boundaries and four over boundaries hammered off 93 balls for his century while Imrul played an innings off 62 balls to fire eight boundaries.
Tamim and Kayes started their 2nd pair show after the dismal departure of Soumya Sarkar at 27/1 in 6.1 overs and ended up at 169/2 in 26.3 overs as Imrul Kayes was trapped lbw by Shadab Khan.
The Tamim-show was finished when the left-hander was caught by Junaid Khan off Shadab Khan bowling at 219/3 in 33.1 overs.
Mushfiqur Rahim fell short of four runs for a half century as he was out with 46 off 35balls, including three boundaries and three sixes. Mushfiqur was caught by Shoaib Malik off Junaid Khan bowling at 247/4 in 36.5 overs.
Mahmudullah Riyad (29 off 24b; 6x4), Mosaddek Hossain (26 off 15b; 3x4; 1x6), Shakib Al Hasan (23 off 27b; 1x4), Soumya Sarkar (19 off 22b; 3x4) and Mehedi Hasan Miraz (13 off 16 b) were the other double-digit scorers for Bangladesh.
The Tigers lost their last three wickets -- Mosaddek Hossain, skipper Mashrafe Bin Mortaza, Mehedi Hasan Miraz -- for 10 runs within a span of 11 balls, from 331/7 in 47.5 overs to 341/9 in 50 overs.
Junaid Khan captured four wickets spending 73 runs in 9 overs while Shadab Khan and Hasan Ali bagged two wickets each conceding 55 and 58 runs respectively in 9 and 10 overs.
Bangladesh will face India in the 2nd warm-up match at Kennington Oval in London on Tuesday (May 30).
Bangladesh will play the host England in the opener of the Champions Trophy in their Group A match at Kennington Oval in London on June 1.