A three-wicket burst from Pragyan Ojha pegged Australia A back on day two before Peter Handscomb and Marcus Stoinis restored parity with an unbroken fifth-wicket partnership of 110 runs

Karthik Krishnaswamy in Chennai23-Jul-2015
ScorecardSteve O’Keefe ran through the lower order to finish with figures of 6 for 82•K Sivaraman

A three-wicket burst from Pragyan Ojha pegged Australia A back on day two of their first four-day match against India A before Peter Handscomb and Marcus Stoinis restored parity with an unbroken partnership of 110 for the fifth wicket. At stumps, Australia A were 185 for four, 116 behind India A’s first-innings total of 301.Abhimanyu Mithun struck early for India A, getting one to shape away from a full length outside off to find Cameron Bancroft’s outside edge as he pushed hard at the ball without moving his feet. At the other end, Travis Head nicked Umesh Yadav when he slanted one across with a bit of extra bounce; the ball flew between the wicketkeeper and the diving Karun Nair at first slip.That ball apart, Umesh struggled with his direction, too often offering width or straying on to the legs of Head and Usman Khawaja, the two left-handers at the crease. The pair put on 50 in 83 balls before Head holed out to mid-off while going after Ojha. Six overs later, Khawaja was gone too, finding deep midwicket with an uppish pull off the same bowler in the last over before tea.Three balls into the final session, Ojha dismissed another left-handed batsman, getting Nic Maddinson caught at leg slip – Nair diving low to his right – when he stretched out and jabbed at him. Australia A were 75 for 4 at that point, with two new batsmen at the crease.The excited buzz of the close fielders around Handscomb and Stoinis died down gradually as the ball grew older and softer. The slowness of the surface allowed both batsmen to sit back against the spinners and watch the ball onto their bats. Mishra in particular struggled to bring the batsmen forward. He may or may not have overcome the lack of zip that has hindered him at various points through his career; on this pitch, there was no way to tell. He will hope the pitches in Sri Lanka will have a little more life in them.Handscomb was eager to use his feet when he got the opportunity, skipping nimbly down the track when he sensed some flight, and wasn’t afraid to work the spinners against the turn. A brace of late-cut doubles off Mishra in the 50th over of the innings took him to his half-century, and he celebrated the landmark by jumping down the track and clouting his next ball to the midwicket boundary. In the next two overs, Stoinis lofted Ojha for a straight six and Handscomb pulled Mishra to the midwicket boundary.It prompted the legspinner to go around the wicket and try to hit the rough outside the right-handers’ leg stump. Neither batsman looked particularly troubled and the day wound down to a quiet close.In the morning session, India A went past 300 thanks to a seventh-wicket partnership of 62 between Vijay Shankar and Amit Mishra. Australia A’s bowlers came in with the same plans that brought them success on day one – stump-to-stump line to a 5-4 leg-side field – without quite maintaining the same level of discipline. There were no rank bad balls, but the seamers occasionally bowled too straight or too full, allowing Shankar and Mishra to inch the score upwards through a steady trickle of singles square on the leg side.As lunch approached, Shankar grew more expansive, lofting the offspinner Travis Head for a six over mid-off and punching Sean Abbott to the cover boundary. He went from 42 to 46 with another back-foot punch off Abbott at the start of the second session, and in the same over drove him fiercely to the right of mid-off to bring up his half-century.He ran out of partners, though, as Steve O’Keefe broke the partnership and ran through the tail. He had Mishra lbw prodding forward and playing for the turn, while Mithun, Yadav and Ojha perished going for aggressive shots.

Karun Nair found a good time to break his rut and his first century in any format since March 2015 ensured a draw for India A, even though they had been trailing South Africa A for the bulk of the first unofficial Test in Wayanad

ESPNcricinfo staff21-Aug-2015
ScorecardFile photo: Karun Nair made his first century since March 2015•K Sivaraman

Karun Nair found a good time to break his rut and his first century in any format since March 2015 ensured a draw for India A, even though they had been trailing South Africa A for the bulk of the first unofficial Test in Wayanad.The visitors would have fancied their chances of a first victory on this tour to India when the final day began – eight wickets to get and a 371-run cushion to play with. But Nair would not budge. He struck an unbeaten 114 off 192 balls, his first ton since the triple in the Ranji Trophy final, and a couple of fifties by Vijay Shankar and captain Abhinav Mukund ensured the other end was just as plucky.There were 78.2 overs of play possible. More than enough for the South Africans to hope, considering they had already dismissed India A for 204 in the first innings. The fourth innings meant spin would be doing the bulk of the work – Dane Piedt, who completed a five-for yesterday, trundled in for 49 overs for only one wicket. Slow left-armer Keshav Maharaj got through 36 overs for two wickets. Although both men kept their economy rates under three, South Africa A would have wanted more wickets from them. Oddly, though, Wayne Parnell bowled only three overs in the innings.That they couldn’t live up to that mandate was down to a very fluent innings from Nair. He had struck only one fifty in 10 innings against both Australia A and South Africa A. He could have been bogged down, but 18 fours and a six indicates otherwise. He walked out in the 12th over of the day and was there, seeing his team to the safety of a draw. Nair strung a 148-run fifth-wicket at a run-rate of 3.4 with Vijay Shankar, who contributed a steady 74 off 142 balls.It was Vijay Shankar’s sixth first-class fifty in 14 matches, and his Tamil Nadu state-mate Mukund eased to his 23rd in 96 matches. This resolute display from India A ensured the series remains 0-0 ahead of the second match, starting from next Tuesday.

Peter Barrable, a former batsman and captain of Northern Transvaal, has died at the age of 72 on Thursday

ESPNcricinfo staff18-Sep-2015Peter Barrable, a former batsman and captain of Northern Transvaal, has died at the age of 72 on Thursday.He had played 16 first-class matches and scored 626 runs. His career began in the 1964-65 season and lasted a decade. He led Northern Transvaal for his final two years between 1972 to 1974 and had been president of the Northerns Cricket Union even as he played cricket.”Not many cricketers possess the skill and leadership qualities to represent the union as batsman, while also being given the captaincy role and simultaneously serve as president,” Titans chief executive officer Jacques Faul said. “Barrable had the skills and knowledge to lead in the board room and on the field and we are grateful for his legacy to the NCU. On behalf of the Northerns Cricket Union family I extend our deepest condolences to his family, his friends and his cricketing colleagues.”

Durham seamer Chris Rushworth has been named the Professional Cricketers’ Association Player of the Year and hopes further success can push him towards England honours

ESPNcricinfo staff29-Sep-20151:13

Rushworth’s pride at top award

Durham seamer Chris Rushworth has been named the Professional Cricketers’ Association Player of the Year, and hopes further success can push him towards England honours.Rushworth, 29, claimed 83 wickets at 20.61 in the County Championship, which set a new Durham record, and 100 across all formats. Significantly, 46 of his Championship wickets were taken away from the favourable home conditions of Chester-le-Street.His prolific season follows a 2014 campaign where he bagged 65 wickets in the Championship – during which he went teetotal for the year to raise money for charity – and he hopes that he still has the chance of forcing the selectors’ hand and earning an international call-up.”I am over the moon, it is a massive achievement,” Rushworth said. “To be voted for by fellow players and your peers is a very privileged moment and one I’m very proud of.”Personally this year couldn’t have gone any better, 83 wickets to go past a club record, it’s just a shame we didn’t win anything as a team. Personally, I couldn’t be more pleased and to finish off with this award wraps up a brilliant season.

PCA awards

Reg Hayter Cup for the PCA Player of the Year
Chris Rushworth (Durham)
Overall PCA County MVP
Chris Rushworth
John Arlott Cup for the PCA Young Player of the Year
Tom Curran (Surrey)
Investec Test Player of the Summer
Stuart Broad
Waitrose Women’s Player of the Summer
Anya Shrubsole
PCA Team of the Year
Alastair Cook (capt) (Essex and England)
Alex Hales (Nottinghamshire and England)
Joe Root (Yorkshire and England)
Sam Northeast (Kent)
Luke Wright (Sussex)
Ben Stokes (Durham and England)
Alex Davies (Lancashire)
Stuart Broad (Nottinghamshire and England)
Matt Coles (Kent)
Jeetan Patel (Warwickshire)
Chris Rushworth (Durham)

“For myself this award is massive and the biggest individual award in county cricket. You play against these guys quite a few times a year so to be voted to win this award is a huge achievement and I’m very grateful and proud.”Hopefully it’s the next step to progressing towards further honours. To receive this from guys who have also had fantastic seasons and to pip them to the post is fantastic moment.”The guys that have won it in recent years have gone on to play Test cricket like Adam Lyth, Moeen Ali and Nick Compton, so that is definitely in my sights. Hopefully I have another good season next year and I can put my name in the hat for Test selection.”The Young Player of the Year award went to Tom Curran who claimed 105 wickets across all formats, helping Surrey to promotion in the Championship and the to final of the Royal London Cup. Having been confirmed that his qualification period to become eligible for England is completed at the end of October, Curran has been added to the England Performance Programme Squad for the training camps in South Africa and Dubai.”We have had a great season as a side this year,” Curran said. “Losing in the Royal London Cup final was a huge disappointment but it was still a good achievement and we won the second division of the LV=County Championship which was a special day as well. I’m very pleased for our side and it’s great to be able to contribute to our success.”At the start of the season I was just trying to do the simple things well and then I started taking a few wickets and, as long as the summer is for us cricketers, it has actually gone really quickly and a little surreal if I’m honest.”He also paid tribute to his younger brother, Sam, after the 17-year-old made a considerable impact in his first season. He claimed 22 Championship wickets, 15 in the Royal London Cup and seven in the T20 Blast, while also showing his talent with the bat in almost carrying Surrey to victory in the final at Lord’s and then making an unbeaten 61 in the last Championship match against Northamptonshire.”It has been a very special summer for Sammy as well,” Tom said. “He came in half way through the season when we went down with a couple of injuries and he has shown everyone he has got what it takes. It’s great to be bowling with him and I am so pleased for him this year.”Playing for England would be the ultimate for any young cricketer and that is my goal but I am concentrating on Surrey first and hopefully the rest will take care of itself and I know that is how Sam feels too.”Stuart Broad won the Test Player award after his outstanding Ashes series including the iconic 8 for 15 at Trent Bridge, fellow opening bowler Anya Shrubsole won the Women’s Player of the Year award and Gloucestershire’s Michael Klinger took the double of NatWest T20 Blast and Royal London Player of the Year after his prolific white-ball season.Shrubsole said: “I am absolutely honoured to have won this award and it makes it more special that it is selected by your team-mates, so it is a nice end to what has been a difficult year. Despite not achieving what we wanted as a team, I am pleased with the way I bowled. A special mention must go to Katherine Brunt who was brilliant with bat and ball this summer, she received my vote. It’s nice to do well personally but it was just a shame we didn’t quite regain the Ashes.”Jim Cumbes, the former Lancashire, Surrey, Warwickshire and Worcestershire player and Lancashire chief executive, was given the Special Merit Award to mark his 50 years of service to the game. He was CEO at Old Trafford from 1998 and 2012 and oversaw the major redevelopment of the ground which involved extensive legal battles.

Sri Lanka Cricket’s search for a permanent head coach has attracted five aspirants who have applied for the post, according to the CEO Ashley de Silva.

Sa'adi Thawfeeq17-Oct-2015Sri Lanka Cricket’s search for a permanent head coach has attracted five aspirants who have applied for the post, according to the CEO Ashley de Silva.De Silva confirmed that all five applicants who had sent their CVs by the October 6 deadline were from overseas, but did not disclose their names as the applications had been sent on the trust of anonymity.”These applications will be processed and evaluated at the next interim committee meeting scheduled for October 20,” De Silva said. “We will take the next course of action after that. If we are not satisfied with the applicants, we may have to head hunt for one.”With Sri Lanka’s sports minister announcing that the SLC elections will be held in January, there is the likelihood of a new administration coming into place. However, De Silva assured that whoever is selected would be given a two-year contract with their performance to be reviewed after one year.Jerome Jayaratne, Sri Lanka Cricket’s head of coaching, is currently the interim head coach of the Sri Lanka team for the ongoing home series against West Indies. His appointment came four days after Marvan Atapattu resigned as the national team coach.

West Indies allrounder Kieron Pollard will miss the remainder of Cape Cobras’ Ram Slam T20 Challenge after injuring his right knee during the clash against Knights in Paarl

ESPNcricinfo staff25-Nov-2015West Indies allrounder Kieron Pollard will miss the remainder of Cape Cobras’ Ram Slam T20 Challenge after injuring his right knee during the clash against Knights in Paarl.Pollard picked up the injury while turning quickly to field a ball, but despite experiencing discomfort, he returned to bat in the second innings, hammering 23 off 12 balls to power his team to a four-wicket win. A CSA release later confirmed that Pollard will return to the Caribbean on Wednesday for treatment.”We are severely disappointed about the loss of a stalwart like Kieron,” Paul Adams, Cobras’ coach, said. “Kieron has given his all. The fact that he went out to bat after he got injured, underlines his dedication and commitment to the team. He has been an inspiration to the whole squad.”Pollard was named the Ram Slam T20 Challenge player of the year during the 2014-15 season, as he ended the tournament with 14 wickets and 243 runs from 11 matches, helping Cobras to the title.The news also came as a blow to the Adelaide Strikers, who confirmed that Pollard was ruled out of the upcoming Big Bash League season, scheduled to begin next month. The Strikers, who announced the signing of England legspinner Adil Rashid last week, will now have to find another international signing to replace Pollard.”This is obviously terrible news and our first concern is that Kieron can make a full recovery from his injury,” Tim Nielsen, the SACA high performance general manager, said. “He’s become a regular at Adelaide Oval and I’m sure both our fans and players will be devastated not to see him in Strikers’ colours.”Kieron is a unique player because he has all-round ability as a batsman, bowler and fielder, so it’s going to be difficult to replace him but we’re investigating all options and will try to find the best fit for the team. Our first match against the Melbourne Stars is less than four weeks away now, so there’s a lot of work to do but we’re confident we can find a suitable replacement.”

M Vijay was fined 30% of his match fee for showing dissent at an umpire’s decision on the third day of the Feroz Shah Kotla Test

ESPNcricinfo staff06-Dec-2015M Vijay was fined 30% of his match fee for showing dissent at an umpire’s decision on the third day of the fourth Test against South Africa at the Feroz Shah Kotla.Vijay, who tried to evade a bouncer from Morne Morkel, was given out caught behind by Kumar Dharmasena. Vijay gestured that he was hit on the arm guard as he walked off. His actions amounted to breaching Article 2.1.5 of the ICC code of conduct, which relates to “showing dissent at an umpire’s decision during an international match”.The charge was levelled by Dharmasena and Bruce Oxenford, the onfield umpires, and CK Nandan, the third umpire.All level 1 breaches carry a minimum penalty of an official reprimand and a maximum penalty of 50% of a player’s match fee.

Mashrafe Mortaza has conceded that Bangladesh’s effort was scratchy, but said that his side will draw confidence from sealing their second-highest chase in T20s

Mohammad Isam in Khulna15-Jan-2016Mashrafe Mortaza has conceded that Bangladesh’s effort was scratchy, but said that his side will draw confidence from sealing their second-highest chase in T20s. Despite some hiccups, Bangladesh reached the target of 164 in 18.4 overs, after having overhauled West Indies’ 164 in the World T20 in 2007.”We were not up to the mark,” Mashrafe said. “We had that early run-out [of Soumya Sarkar] and if Mushfiqur [Rahim] or Sabbir [Rahman] didn’t get out at those points, we could have finished it in 17-18 overs. But good thing was that we didn’t panic at any stage, which we used to do in the past.”It is helpful to play in such wickets though I thought it was a scratchy performance. I think chasing this big total will give us more confidence. It is one of our biggest successful chases in T20s so the win is quite a relief. It wasn’t easy chasing 165 so I hope we can hold on to this effort.”Mashrafe was also pleased with the performances of Al-Amin Hossain and Mustafizur Rahman. They shared four wickets and gave away only 10 runs in the last two overs of the first innings. Zimbabwe were given a strong platform for a final push by a 101-run opening partnership between Hamilton Masakadza and Vusi Sibanda, but Al-Amin and Mustafizur pegged the visitors back.”Al-Amin was our best T20 bowler before his action was reported,” Mashrafe said. He is one of our best death bowlers. I have been saying that Mustafizur is unplayable. I think we have good balance at the death with Shakib and myself also there.”Mashrafe also said that he made a mistake by not using debutant Shuvagata Hom in the middle overs. Mahmudullah and Sabbir Rahman bowled four overs during that period while conceding 36 runs. Shuvagata was then sent into bat at No.4, ahead of Mushfiqur Rahim and Shakib Al Hasan, but managed only six runs.”He is playing as a bowling allrounder. I could have brought him on instead of Mahmudullah or Sabbir. I sent him to bat at No 4 because I wanted to see him bat in these situations,” Mashrafe said.

A round-up of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy games played on January 18, 2016

ESPNcricinfo staff18-Jan-2016
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsFile photo: Deepak Hooda’s 35-ball 53 kept Baroda’s chase on track until the 17th over•ICC

Baroda survived three wickets in the penultimate over of their chase and managed to knock Mumbai out with a slender one-wicket win to book a final berth with a marginally better net run rate. Baroda’s pursuit of 152 was led by Deepak Hooda’s 35-ball 53 until the 17th over before Sagar Trivedi struck twice in the 19th over, which was followed by a run-out, and Bhargav Bhatt eventually sealed it with a four on his first ball. Baroda, level with Mumbai on points after the win, ended with a run rate of 0.299 compared to Mumbai’s 0.196.Dhawal Kulkarni dismissed Kedar Devdhar on the first ball of Baroda’s chase and Pravin Tambe got rid of Mrunal Devdhar (18) and Hardik Pandya (28) before they could capitalise on their quick starts. Hooda’s fifty steered them well past 100 with the help of five fours and a six before Yusuf Pathan (1) and Hooda fell within six balls and Baroda were 126 for 6, still needing 26 from 23 balls. Pinal Shah struck two fours to bring it down to a comfortable nine runs from the last two overs, but Trivedi’s double blow made it a tense chase again. He struck twice in three balls and Rishi Arothe was run-out on his first ball, to make the score 149 for 9, but Bhatt finished things off with six balls to spare.Earlier, Mumbai were put in to bat and saw low scores from their top-order batsmen, except Shashank Singh’s 23-ball 25. Shreyas Iyer, Aditya Tare and Siddhesh Lad could score only 20 runs together and they were reeling at 49 for 4 after Bhatt removed Shashank and Lad on consecutive deliveries, before the middle and lower order came to the rescue. Suryakumar Yadav (57*) first put on 47 runs in six overs with Abhishek Nayar, and then another 55 runs in under six overs with Shivam Dubey to help them put on a respectable score, but it didn’t prove to be enough.
ScorecardUttar Pradesh will face Baroda in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy final after completing their eighth win on the trot, by beating Delhi by three wickets at the Bandra-Kurla Complex in Mumbai.Chasing 159, UP were reduced to 68 for 5 in the 11th over with twin-strikes from medium-pacer Navdeep Saini. Left-arm spinner Manan Sharma got the important wicket of Suresh Raina in the seventh over, for 22, after the batsman had struck four fours. Eklavya Dwivedi then took control of the chase with an unbeaten 49 from 35. He partnered with Praveen Kumar (18 off 13) to add 40 runs for the seventh wicket, after which he shared an unbroken 31-run stand with Amit Mishra (19 off nine) to take UP home with two balls to spare. Dwivedi smacked five fours and two sixes during his knock.Put in to bat, Delhi were hauled to 158 for 6 by opener Unmukt Chand’s 35-ball 48 and No. 7 Pawan Negi’s unbeaten 41 from 23. Delhi were 95 for 5 in the 14th over after their top and middle order was dented mainly by the spinners. Medium-pacer Amit Mishra removed Gautam Gambhir for 13 and Piyush Chawla and Kuldeep Yadav took two each before Mishra also dismissed Chand in the 12th over, and soon Delhi were 105 for 6 in the 15th over. But Negi’s late surge lifted them in the death overs. He paired with Manan Sharma to add an unbeaten 53 in the last 5.1 overs to take them past 150.
ScorecardJharkhand slumped to their third straight loss as Gujarat strolled to a six-wicket win, hunting down the target of 143 with 35 balls to spare, in Mumbai. Gujarat chose to bowl, and their bowlers gained the ascendancy with early wickets. Jharkhand lost three wickets and struggled to find the boundaries in the first 10 overs, which yielded 52 runs.However, the middle order – Saurabh Tiwary (22), Ishank Jaggi (39) and Kumar Deobrat (21) – provided the required acceleration with brisk cameos. The last 10 overs produced 90 runs as Jharkhand finished with 142 for 6. Rush Kalaria picked up two wickets while RP Singh produced figures of 1 for 20 in his four overs.In the chase, openers Parthiv Patel and Priyank Kirit Panchal got quickly into their stride. The pair added 26 in 18 balls before Parthiv was bowled off the bowling of Vikash Singh. Manpreet Juneja and Panchal then combined for a 58-run stand, before both fell in quick succession.However, Gujarat’s middle order’s quickfire contributions – all struck at a strike rate of over 200 – helped them romp to the target in 14.1 overs. Kaushal Singh claimed two scalps, but all the Jharkhand bowlers lacked economy.

Bangladesh held their collective nerve against Pakistan, as Mahmudullah’s cameo secured a five-wicket win and a place in the Asia Cup final

The Report by Mohammad Isam02-Mar-2016
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details5:29

Bazid Khan: Sharjeel, Hafeez never deliver when it matters

Those who watch cricket regularly will tell you that in a tight contest, the winning side will always show some signs of their impending triumph. Mahmudullah’s upright blast over extra cover at the start of the 17th over can only be described as the shot of the tournament so far. In a tight chase of 130 against Pakistan, it was only fair that Mahmudullah struck the blow that took Bangladesh to the Asia Cup final.Despite Shakib Al Hasan’s brain freeze to Mohammad Amir in the 18th over, Mashrafe Mortaza struck two heroic fours immediately after to ease Bangladesh’s nerves. Then, in a manic 19th over bowled by Mohammad Sami which included two no balls, Mahmudullah’s squeezed boundary past point all but sealed victory for the hosts. Once Mahmudullah duly knocked off the winning runs with a slog past midwicket, he and Mashrafe wheeled away in wild celebration, nearly ramming into their on-rushing team-mates.Mahmudullah’s unbeaten 15-ball 22 was perhaps the most important innings of his career, particularly because he was at the crease in the last over of the 2012 Asia Cup final, when Bangladesh fell short by two runs against Pakistan. This game went into the last over too, but mostly because Bangladesh lost wickets at crucial stages and were trying their best not to crumble to Amir. The other Pakistan bowlers were all shoddy, and they were not helped by the team’s very poor effort in the field.Still, it was Bangladesh who were pegged back early in their 130-run chase. Tamim Iqbal was the first to go as a rare leg-before victim of Mohammad Irfan, who brought the ball into the batsman and hit the striding front pad half-way up. Luckily, Soumya Sarkar found Sabbir Rahman willing to stick around to weather the initial Amir storm. After the pair had safely negotiated those two overs, they looked for runs off the other bowlers. Soumya managed to hit Amir for an elegant four through midwicket, while Sabbir’s only boundary in his 15-ball 14 also came through a roll of the wrist, through fine-leg.Sabbir fell to Shahid Afridi in the ninth over, missing a charge completely to be bowled. Soumya survived a few close calls with miscued hits dropping short on a number of occasions, but he was generally hitting them well on the leg-side. Mushfiqur Rahim was also lucky to survive a close leg-before appeal to Afridi before Amir and Malik brought Pakistan into the game in the space of eight deliveries in the 13th and 14th overs.Having been brought back for a single over as his second spell, Amir yorked Soumya by clattering into his leg-stump. Soumya had made a run-a-ball 48 that had five fours and the pumped six into the midwicket stands, but when he got out, Bangladesh needed 47 off 40 balls.There was much expected from the experienced duo of Mushfiqur and Shakib at that stage, but Mushfiqur was given out leg-before trying to reverse-sweep Malik in the over after Soumya got out.Taskin Ahmed and Al-Amin Hossain were Bangladesh’s best bowlers, stepping up in the absence of Mustafizur Rahman, who was ruled out through a right side strain. Taskin bowled his first maiden over in his T20I career in a first-spell that saw him give away just one run. His second spell produced the wicket of Umar Akmal; he finished with figures of 4-1-14-1. Al-Amin bowled two tight overs at the top, giving away just nine runs before returning in the last four overs to give away four and 12, as Bangladesh decently closed out the Pakistan innings for 129 for 7.Pakistan’s innings followed the same pattern of their previous games, losing three early wickets. Khurram Manzoor sent to open the batting, played out the first over and then got out for one off the first ball of the second, an Al-Amin delivery that jumped on him outside off-stump. It was the third time in the four Asia Cup matches that Al-Amin had taken a wicket in his first spell. Sharjeel Khan was bowled after missing a slog off Arafat Sunny in the fourth over, after he had faced just eight balls till that point, hitting a four and six.Mohammad Hafeez was unlucky when he was given out leg-before by umpire Ruchira Palliyaguruge when even on the first view, it looked as if the Mashrafe Mortaza delivery was climbing. Replays confirmed that it was yet another erroneous decision by an umpire in the Asia Cup. When Taskin removed Akmal in his second spell, Pakistan ended with the lowest score – 34 for 4 – in the first ten overs against Bangladesh.Sarfraz Ahmed and Malik then joined hands for a fifth-wicket partnership. Malik struck Shakib for a six that was as straight as an arrow, and also found three fours on the off-side as well as one that was tickled past long-leg. Sarfraz got both his sixes with swings to midwicket, and tucked into fours through covers, midwicket, and mid-on.Malik was in the groove when he mistimed Sunny to the deep midwicket boundary for 41 off 30 balls. Soon, Sarfraz reached his second T20I fifty with an inside-out blast over cover in the penultimate over.But it was Mahmudullah’s inside-out blast over the covers that would be the most memorable moment of the game, as Bangladesh got themselves to the final of a tournament that they were fearing a bit more than the World T20 itself.