Bangladesh end World Cup campaign with heavy defeat to Pakistan as Shaheen takes 6 wickets

A fabulous 6-wicket haul by Shaheen Afridi has seen Bangladesh end their World Cup with a heavy 94-run defeat to Pakistan.

Ariful Islam Roneyfrom Londonbdnews24.com
Published : 5 July 2019, 05:25 PM
Updated : 5 July 2019, 07:57 PM

Shakib Al Hasan top-scored with 64 runs as the Tigers suffered a batting collapse to be 221 all out at the Lord’s on Friday in a chase of 316 to win, a target they had crossed twice before in this tournament.

Captain Mashrafe Bin Mortaza (15 off 14) in his farewell World Cup game hit two sixes to cheer up the crowd before being stumped off a Shadab Khan delivery in the 44th over to ensure the margin of defeat below 100 runs.

Liton Das was the second top-scorer for Bangladesh with half the runs Shakib scored.

Cricket - ICC Cricket World Cup - Pakistan v Bangladesh - Lord's, London, Britain - July 5, 2019 Bangladesh's Shakib Al Hasan in action Action Images via Reuters

It was Shakib’s seventh half-century of the tournament, equalling Sachin Tendulkar's record of 2003, before slashing wildly at a ball from Shaheen and being caught behind.

He is also the highest-scoring batsman of the tournament with 606 runs now, but India’s Rohit Sharma, David Warner and Aaron Finch of Australia, Joe Root of England and Kane Williamson of New Zealand still have at least one match each to play and fair chance to leapfrog the Bangladesh all-rounder.

Cricket - ICC Cricket World Cup - Pakistan v Bangladesh - Lord's, London, Britain - July 5, 2019 Pakistan's Shaheen Afridi celebrates taking the wicket of Bangladesh's Mahmudullah Action Images via Reuters

The 19-year-old Shaheen became the youngest bowler to take 6 wickets at the tournament.

Giving up just 35 runs in the process, he now also has the best figures for a Pakistan bowler in the competition's history.

But his brilliant performance coupled with Mohammed Amir’s in the tournament could not save Pakistan from being eliminated with poor run rate.

At the start of the chase, Soumya Sarkar (22) found himself in trouble facing the wily Amir and threw his wicket away to the Pakistani fast-bowler, failing to take advantage of a reprieve early when Haris Sohail dropped a regulation chance at first slip.

Tamim Iqbal could manage 8 runs off 21 balls before being bowled by an in-cutter by Shaheen, thus he ended his World Cup with just one fifty.

Mushfiqur Rahim started well, giving the fans the hope that he would support Shakib, but he ended up chopping a Wahab Riaz delivery on to the stumps. 

Shakib was joined by Liton in the highest stand of 58 runs in the Bangladesh innings, which raised hopes of a victory with Mahmudullah and Mosaddek Hossain still to come in.

But the teenaged Pakistani bowler came back for his second spell to break the partnership by deceiving Liton with a slower delivery just like what he had done to Tamim.

Shaheen claimed the biggest scalp when he induced Shakib to give a thick edge behind the stumps to wicketkeeper Sarfaraz.

Mahmudullah, Mosaddek and the rest of the Bangladesh batsmen could not stand up to the young pacer as they lost last 5 wickets for 25 runs.

Cricket - ICC Cricket World Cup - Pakistan v Bangladesh - Lord's, London, Britain - July 5, 2019 Pakistan's Imam-ul-Haq celebrates his century Action Images via Reuters

A century by Imam-ul-Haq and 96 runs by Babar Azam earlier in the day were not enough to secure the improbable run rate to qualify for the semifnals as they finally needed to bowl Bangladesh out for just 7 runs or less.

Cricket - ICC Cricket World Cup - Pakistan v Bangladesh - Lord's, London, Britain - July 5, 2019 Pakistan's Babar Azam in action Action Images via Reuters

Mustafizur Rahman earned his second five-for in the tournament and became the fastest Bangladeshi bowler to reach 100 wickets, but conceded 75 runs before stopping Imad Wasim (43 off 26) in the last over. 

Cricket - ICC Cricket World Cup - Pakistan v Bangladesh - Lord's, London, Britain - July 5, 2019 Bangladesh's Mustafizur Rahman celebrates taking the wicket of Pakistan's Mohammad Amir Action Images via Reuters

Sarfaraz Ahmed did not hesitate to send Bangladesh in to field first after winning the toss as Pakistan still had the improbable chance of making it to the semifinals by overpowering New Zealand by net run rate.

The margin for Pakistan to qualify for the semis would have been 84 had they scored 400 runs.

Mehidy Hasan Miraz, who opened the bowling, kept Pakistan’s run rate in check with an economy rate of 3 and took one wicket.

Mohammad Saifuddin struck thrice, having opener Fakhar Zaman (23), caught by Mahidy at point.

Saifuddin also broke an invaluable 157-run partnership between Imam and Babar by trapping the latter leg before wicket when he was just 4 runs away from a century.

The pacer, however, bled 77 runs in 9 overs before bowling Wahab Riaz out in the 47th over while Mashrafe gave away 47 runs in 7 overs ending the tournament with only one wicket.