Three wickets Abrar by followed fifties by Sahibzada and Nawaz as the hosts took a 2-0 series lead against Bangladesh.
Pakistan beat Bangladesh by 57 runs in the second T20 international in Lahore to seal the three-game series 2-0.
Opener Sahibzada Farhan was named Player of the Match after he top scored with 74 for the hosts, who won the toss at Gaddafi Stadium before posting 201-6.
It was a fair fight back from Bangladesh to restrict the hosts after Hasan Nawaz recorded the best strike rate of the innings with an unbeaten 51 off 26 balls.
Tanzim Hasan gave some respectability to the chase, which was reduced to 77-7, when, coming in at nine, the Bangladesh bowling allrounder added 50 off 31 balls.
Abrar Ahmed’s off-break spin was key to restricting the tourists as he claimed 3-19 off his four overs to help Pakistan to their first T20 home series win since December 2021.
“It feels very good … I didn’t know it was three and a half years,” the Pakistan captain Salman Agha said afterwards of the end of the barren run.
“It was a complete performance, and that is way better than anything else.
“Everyone is loving the team environment where everyone can come and enjoy playing for Pakistan.”
Pakistan, who won the first match by 37 runs at the same venue, brought in opener Sahibzada in place of Fakhar Zaman.
The decision was fully repaid with six sixes and four fours recorded by the right-hander in his 41-ball innings.
The match could not have got off to a worse start for Bangladesh with Shoriful Islam limping out of his first bowl. The left-arm seamer appeared to tweak a groin while fielding the ball in his follow-through and adds to a long list of absent pacers for the tourists.
“When Shoriful was injured, the momentum shifted,” the Bangladesh skipper Litton Das said.
“We have a lack of bowling, but we came back well because I would back our batters any day to chase 200 on this track.
“Whoever is batting well has to keep going, for 13 or 14 overs, but after four overs we didn’t bat well and there were back-to-back wickets.
“In cricket, you have to do the basics, we don’t do it at the moment.”
Bangladesh had reached 44-0 in the fourth over of the chase before the collapse that ended their hopes of bouncing back from the opening defeat.
Opener Tanzid Hasan struck 33 from 19 balls in the stand, but once he fell to the seam of Faheem Ashraf an inevitable end quickly formed.
The last match is on Sunday, also in Lahore.
Leave a comment