Ousted hosts tame Tigers

By V. Balaji

Karachi

July 4: Pakistan found their bearings all right, just that was a little too late to matter. The hosts, already out of contention for a place in Sunday’s final demolished Bangladesh by 10 wickets in their Asia Cup Super Fours match to appease the fairly decent Friday turnout at the National Stadium here.

Chasing a meagre 116 for a win, Pakistan knocked off the runs in 19.4 overs, Salman Butt and Nasir Jamshed cracking half-centuries.

Earlier the medium pacers did a fine job picking wickets at regular intervals to peg back Bangladesh who finished the tournament with a solitary win.

Abdur Rauf rocked the visitors with three quick wickets to reduce them to 49/4.

Things looked comfortable for the visitors at 47/1 with Tamim Iqbal and Mohammed Ashraful forging a partnership, but Bangladesh never recovered from the loss of three wickets in 14 balls. Tamim’s 26 remained the highest as the team folded in 38.2 overs. Only four batsmen crossed double figures.

With very little interest surrounding the match, a rare feat by Ifthikar Rao almost went unnoticed. His six maiden overs were only the ninth instance in ODI history where a bowler has managed six or more overs maiden overs. After going for 13 runs in his first over there was very little that came of Rao. His next nine went for only seven runs.

The last five wickets could add only 23 runs to set up an easy target for the former champions.

Off-spinner Saeed Ajmal turned in an impressive performance. Maintaining a disciplined line he kept one end tight and finished with two wickets. Skipper Shoaib Malik who returned to the team after recovering from dehydration picked up one wicket.

The chase was hardly in any trouble. With the first innings coming to a premature close Pakistan batted for five overs before the dinner break and took 23 runs off the target. The break did little to alter Jamshed’s flow. His knock was a smooth compilation of silken drives and deft wrists.

The 50 came in the 10th over and Butt who played second fiddle for a change also got in on the act by punishing every loose delivery that came his way.

Jamshed raced to his 50 with a straight driven six and a boundary through mid-wicket of Mahmudullah. The 100 came up in 18.2 overs and the target was reached with a flurry of boundaries. India now take on Sri Lanka in the final on Sunday.

Scores: Pakistan 116/0 (Butt 56 n.o., Jamshed 52 n.o.) beat Bangladesh 115 (Iqbal 26; Anjum 2/20, Ajmal 2/19, Rauf 3/24)