Pakistan crush Bangladesh before vital clash
After the run feast that happened in the early part of the day, there was nothing much to look forward to as Pakistan took the field
Anand Vasu
02-Jun-2000
After the run feast that happened in the early part of the day, there
was nothing much to look forward to as Pakistan took the field. Maybe
Wasim Akram would charge in and make the ball talk. Even that did not
happen. At the end of the day, it made absolutely no difference to the
result. Pakistan go through to their next encounter in the Asia Cup
against India tomorrow, having beaten Bangladesh by 233 runs at the
Bangabhandu stadium on Friday.
The crowd went silent as wicket after wicket fell on what was as
docile a wicket as you would see. Habibul Basher who made a half
century against India provided the lone resistance. Even that was only
a token resistance. His 23 provided the crowd with some relief from a
seemingly unending list of soft dismissals.
For Pakistan, the wickets were shared around. Abdur Razzaq bowled the
straightest of the lot and was the most successful, bagging three
wickets. Bangladesh ended on 87 all out. Shariar Hossain could not bat
after as he was seriously dehydrated earlier in the day and left the
field. This was Bangldesh's lowest total in limited overs cricket. To
add insult to injury, this was also the largest margin of victory in a
limited overs match beating the 232 run thrashing that Australia
handed out to Sri Lanka in 1987.
When cats run around among pigeons, mayhem is the only result. Imran
Nazir was licking the cream off his whiskers as bowler after bowler
tried his luck at stemming the rot. Fortunately for the hosts Saeed
Anwar was motoring sedately along at a run a ball. Driving the ball
with more elegance than the rampaging Nazir, Anwar found the gaps with
consummate ease.
Nazir showed no restraint and his onslaught was so overwhelming that
the crowd was on its feet in excitement. When the ball was up for the
drive it disappeared over either mid off or mid on. If the ball was
short it was anybody's guess where it disappeared. Even deliveries
pitched well outside the off stump disappeared over mid wicket. Nazir
opened his shoulders and unleashed raw power. The fact that he was
dropped twice did little to deter the youngster.
The man took the brunt of the bashing was roly poly Khaled Mahmud
whose two overs disappeared for 31 runs. Needless to say, he was
quickly removed from the attack by an embarrassed captain.
Saeed Anwar walked across after one such dropped catch and cautioned
his opening partner. The next ball Anwar faced, the first of the day
from Naimur Rehman uprooted his off stump. Coming a bit down the
track, Anwar played down the wrong line and lost his off stump. He had
contributed 31 to a total of 83.
Yousuf Youhana who more than helped Pakistan save one Test match in
the West Indies came in at one drop, much ahead of his customary
number five position. His presence at the crease brought a semblance
of normalcy to the proceedings. Although he smacked the second ball he
faced to the fence, he was in principle at least more selective in
shot making.
With temperatures rapidly approaching the mid forties, and humidity at
over 80% it was but natural that things slowed down. And at the
halfway mark of their innings, Bangladesh had lost one man to the
weather. Shariar Hussain holding his thighs and calves fell flat on
the ground and simply could not get back up. He was soon half carried
off the field by his team mates.
There was no stopping Imran Nazir. Playing strokes all around the
wicket, the youngster was going along merrily when a bit of bad
running between the wickets stopped him dead in his tracks. After
starting and stopping and starting again he was found short of his
ground by a neat bit of fielding by Aminul Islam.
Youhana was joined by Inzamam ul Huq out in the middle and from the
word go neither were in any manner of strife. All of a sudden, a
glance at the scoreboard revealed the fact that Youhana had helped
himself to 80 runs. Against the grain of play, Nazir was dismissed
when he looked good for a century. The same happened with Youhana.
Overbalancing against left arm spinner Enamul Hoque, Youhana was a tad
late getting back to his ground and Khaled Masud behind the stumps had
the bails off in a flash.
The hugely popular Shahid Afridi walked out to a generous round of
applause from the crowd. After playing and missing at a good many
balls, Afridi finally connected. And the result was the same each time
- the ball went crashing to the fence. Having adopted the mid wicket
fence as his preferred destination, Afridi clouted everything that was
bowled at him in that direction.
At the other end Inzamam was all smiles as he toyed with the bowling.
Standing tall, the man from Multan drove superbly through both off and
on side. If Afridi was the beast, Inzamam was the beauty. Using deft
touches, a dab around the corner and a tap past short third man
Inzamam gathered runs at a good pace. As the innings drew to a close
however, no one was in the mood for anything delicate. Taking turns,
Afridi and Inzamam clouted the ball round the park. Even when they did
hit the ball straight to the fielder the catches were grassed.
The two remained unbeaten as Pakistan posted 320, the highest score in
the Asia Cup competition. Inzamam was on 75 and Afridi 45 when the
umpires ended the action and took the players off the field. Fifty
overs of maximum viewing pleasure had come to an end.
One must however spare a thought for the Bangladesh side. Pushing hard
for Test status that they will in all likelihood attain in the near
future, the team was helpless and often clueless. Taken most to task
was mediumpacer Khaled Mahmud whose 10 overs cost him and Bangladesh
81 runs.