Winner takes all as Pakistan face Bangladesh in virtual knock-out for a place in the Final of the Asia Cup.
Resurgent Pakistan take on Bangladesh in virtual, winner takes all semi-final.
In order to secure their place against India in the Asia Cup 2025 final, Pakistan’s hot-and-cold campaign squares up against Bangladesh’s hunger in a simulated semi-final. Although they haven’t won two straight tournament games, Pakistan recovered against Sri Lanka after losing badly to India. Despite their current reservations about T20I, Bangladesh hasn’t performed too poorly in the competition. As a youthful team going through a transition, they are now playing with greater assurance. However, they had a short turnaround after yesterday’s loss to India.
Their batting comeback against Sri Lanka would give Pakistan hope. They fell to 57 for four when chasing 134 after losing four wickets for just 12 runs. The unexpected batting heroes, Hussain Talat and Mohammad Nawaz, helped Pakistan win easily. Prior to the match, they had bowled effectively to limit Sri Lanka, who were the favourites after their performance in the group round.
After removing the more celebrated Mohammad Haris, Sri Lanka decelerated, allowing Talat and Nawaz to demonstrate the benefit of being the team’s underappreciated hitters. Despite not being employed as a bowler in Pakistan’s previous two games, Nawaz has had an intriguing tournament.
Bangladesh, in contrast to Pakistan, would like to forget their recent performance against India as soon as possible. They would rely on the assurance they had after defeating Afghanistan and Sri Lanka earlier in the competition. Prior to the Asia Cup, they had already won three straight T20I series, including a 2-1 victory over Pakistan at home in July.
To be fair, after Abhishek Sharma and Shubman Gill got off to an explosive start against India, Bangladesh’s bowlers recovered nicely. Before Tanzim Hasan Sakib and Mustafizur Rahman reduced the pace of scoring, legspinner Rishad Hossain claimed the first two wickets. Saif Hassan will have cause to think he can add a third against Pakistan after his consecutive fifties.