Pakistan completed a 3-0 series victory in the T20 leg of their tour of Bangladesh by winning the last match by five wickets in Dhaka on November 22.
Pakistan’s tour of Bangladesh has so far turned out to be great for the visitors as they bag the T20 series by 3-0. Babar Azam’s men defeated the Bangla tigers by five wickets in the third match at Shere Bangla National Stadium on Monday.
The third T20I saw Bangladesh win the toss and choose to bat first. On pitches that have proved to be a nightmare for batters, the hosts posted 124/7 on the board. Mohammad Naim added 47 runs off 50 balls while Shamim Hossain and Afif Hossain scored useful 20s. Mohammad Wasim Jr was the pick of the bowlers for Pakistan with 2 for 15 in his four overs.
Pakistan top order did well, with Mohammad Rizwan scoring 40 off 43 and Haider Ali producing a terrific 45 off 38. The visitors were 117/2 in 19 overs with 8 required off the last over when the drama began. Mahmudullah dismissed Sarfaraz Ahmed and Haider Ali on consecutive balls to bring the equation down to 8 off 3. Iftikhar Ahmed smashed the first ball for a six before getting caught on the next delivery.
2 needed off the last ball, Mohammad Nawaz took the strike and pulled out at the last moment, with the ball hitting the stumps. After a long chat in the middle, it was called a dead ball. Nawaz smashed the next delivery over extra cover to seal the victory for Pakistan.
Earlier, Pakistan chased down 128 with four wickets and four balls to spare in the first T20I. Hasan Ali picked 3 for 22 while Fakhar Zaman, Khushdil Shah, Shadab Khan and Nawaz made crucial contributions with the bat. In the second game, Pakistan bowlers restricted the hosts to just 108/7, with Shaheen Shah Afridi and Shadab taking 2 wickets each. Rizwan scored 39 runs and Fakhar hammered 57 off 51 as they chased it down in 18.1 overs.
Rizwan was named the ‘player of the series’ for his 90 runs across three innings. Zaman was the highest run-getter in the series, scoring 91 in two innings at a strike rate of 104. Wasim was the top wicket-taker with five scalps at an exceptional economy of 4.36 and 9.60 runs a piece.
The two teams will now meet at Chattogram for the first Test, starting Friday, November 26.