At the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore on September 6, 2023, Pakistan and Bangladesh will play each other in the opening game of the Super Four of the Asia Cup 2023. The host team, Pakistan, will enter the Super Four on the strength of astounding performances with both the bat and the ball in the first game, defeating Nepal by a huge margin of 238 runs while their second game against India was rained out. They were excellent with the ball against India, knocking them out for 266 in just 50 overs thanks to the 10 wickets all of the pacers contributed to.
By setting up Rohit Sharma with two outswingers and tucking in the stumps with the third delivery, Shaheen Afridi made the early breakthrough. He then picked off Virat Kohli by playing him on. Naseem Shah and Haris Rauf each took three wickets, and Afridi finished his stint with 4/35. When it came to batting, Babar Azam and Iftikhar Ahmed destroyed Nepal with a 214-run stand for the fifth wicket, going on to both score a century.
In the opening Super Four match versus Bangladesh, Pakistan will try to maintain their advantage, and they are the clear favorites to prevail.
Bangladesh, on the other side, will enter the super four after one significant defeat and one significant victory. While they scored 334/5 against Afghanistan in the second game and bowled them out for 245, winning by a huge margin of 89 runs, they were bowled out for 164 in the first game against the elite bowling attack of Sri Lanka.
The highlight for Bangladesh with the bat was Najmul Hossain Shanto, who scored 89 in the first game and a brilliant century in the second. Mehidy Hasan Miraz, who scored his second ODI hundred in the second game, was also outstanding. Before getting hurt and retiring, he and Shanto astonished the Afghan bowlers with an undefeated 194 run-stand. In as many as two games, Taskin Ahmed has taken five wickets in the bowling department, while his bowling partner Shoriful Islam has taken four.
Despite the fact that Bangladesh reached the super four in impressive fashion, they will be concerned since their star hitter Shanto has been ruled out due to a hamstring injury while their go-to batter Litton Das has joined the team after overcoming an illness. Going into the Super Four of the 2023 Asia Cup, Bangladesh will also try to keep up their winning ways.
Let’s have a look at the statistics and upcoming milestones from the Super Four’s opening game between Pakistan and Bangladesh in the interim:
Head-to-Head: In 37 One-Day Internationals, the two teams have faced off, with Pakistan decisively dominating with 32 victories to Bangladesh’s five victories.
Both teams have faced off 13 times in ODI matches for the Asia Cup, with Pakistan winning 12 and Bangladesh just one.
Babar Azam (45) needs five more catches to reach 50 in ODIs.
1 – Haris Rauf (49) needs one more ODI wicket to achieve 50 for his career.
1 – Shadab Khan (199) needs one more victim to reach 200 wickets overall.
Fakhar Zaman (4846) must score 154 more runs to reach 5000 career runs in international cricket.
Imam-ul-Haq (2889) needs 111 runs to reach 3000 runs in one-day international cricket.
2 – In the 50-over format, Mustafizur Rahman (148) needs two more victims to reach 150 wickets.
Shakib Al Hasan (47), in the ODI format, needs three sixes to reach 50 maximums.
2 – Shakib (21) needs two wickets to pass Abdur Razzak (22) and take over as Bangladesh’s all-time highest ODI wicket-taker in Asia Cups.
For Mushfiqur Rahim (93) to score 100 maximums in ODIs, he needs to hit seven more sixes.
Shakib Al Hasan (27) needs four wickets to surpass David Warner as the top spinner in the Asia Cup.
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