A spirited Bangladesh on Wednesday continued their giant killing act with a stunning five-wicket win over Pakistan in a low-scoring thriller to set up a title clash against India in the Asia Cup T20 cricket tournament, here.
Needing 130 to win, Bangladesh won the match in 19.1 overs with Mahmudullah Riyadh (22 not out off 15 balls) and Mashrafe Mortaza (12 off 7 balls) adding 27 in only 1.5 overs to help the hosts overwhelm the target with five balls to spare.
It was a tense final few overs as Bangladesh withered the storm off Mohammed Amir (2/26 in 4 overs) after they looked in trouble at 104 for 5 in 17.2 overs.
In came skipper Mortaza with Amir on rampage in the 18th over. The skipper hit two back-to-back boundaries off Amir before playing two dots.
With Bangladesh requiring 18 off the last two overs, Mohammed Sami had Mortaza caught at long-off but to the bowler’s horror, it was called a no-ball for overstepping as the equation came down from 15 off nine balls to 12 from nine balls with the skipper and Mahmudullah running a couple.
With nine required off seven balls, Mahmudullah bisected a fuller delivery from Sami behind point boundary and to the joy of the crowd it was too adjudged a no-ball.
Earlier, Sarfraz Ahmed’s composed unbeaten knock of 58 saw Pakistan get to a par score of 129 for seven in 20 overs after Afridi elected to bat.
Al Amin Hossain (3/25) was the most successful bowler while left-arm spinner Arafat Sunny chipped in with two wickets. It was yet another disastrous start by the Pakistanis, who were reduced to 28/4 but Sarfraz along with Shoaib Malik repaired damage.