PAK VS BAN - Super Four, Match 6, Asia Cup 2018

Phewf! So, India-Bangladesh final then. A repeat of the 2016 Asia Cup final. Bangladesh will be desperate for redemption, India too will shrug off all the rustiness to finish with a flourish. Stage set. A couple of my colleagues were busy rejoicing that Dhoni finish in the 2016 edition. With a maximum of course. Join us for one final time in the #AsiaCup2018 on Friday. We'll be up and early to bring you all the action. Until then, this is Raju Peethala waving goodbye on behalf of Nikhil Jadhav, Varun Dixit and Rishi Roy. Our scorer Shashikant Singh says cheerio!!

Did Pakistan miss a trick in their bowling? Bangladesh were rattled early by some outstanding spell of bowling from Shaheen and Junaid Khan. And remember there's no Shakib in the middle order. But, Pakistan have dug themselves a hole by getting carried away with spinners - although mediocre - and in the process allowed Mushfiqur and Mithun to prosper. The duo stitched a 144-run stand and laid perfect base to inch closer to 250. And besides that, the magic of Mashrafe Mortaza. That catch.

Mushfiqur Rahim, Man of the Match: With the new ball and with the quality Pakistan bowling had we knew we might lose early wickets. It's very important that I believed in myself and I spoke to Mithun that we need to build a partnership which was very crucial at that stage. The wicket was pretty good and we wanted to make sure we dig in through the first 10 overs. The credit goes to the way I practice and the preparation I do gives me a lot of self belief. Whenever you are positive you take the right decisions more often and it helps a lot in my batting. Making the right decisions help me stay calm and my posture at the crease.

Mashrafe Mortaza, winning captain: Normally I start with the ball, but today we changed a bit with our bowling plan today. Started with Fizz and Mehidy. The bowlers have done a good job. Mushy batted so well and Mithun also batted well. At the end, the bowlers are brilliant. We are proud of our fielding today. We haven't seen such quality in a long time. Hopefully we will continue our fielding like this. We still have to improve in our batting and bowling in some parts. I was lucky I didn't drop that catch (Shoaib Malik catch). He was in such good form and if he didn't get out, he would have carried on. We all know that India is a serious side and the number one side the world. We will be missing Shakib and Tamim but the boys have showed character and one match to go, and hopefully the boys will play hard.

All stats thanks to Deepu Narayanan

--> Pakistan's 202/9 is the third instance in 2018 of a team batting out all 50 overs without getting all out & chasing a target The last time it happened was in Mar 2012 - Ban vs Pak in Mirpur in Asia Cup 2012 final

--> Asia Cup 2018 final will be Bangladesh's ninth knockout match in international cricket - they lost all of their previous eight.

--> Four of those came against India - WC 2015 QF, Asia Cup 2016 final, CT 2017 SF & Nidahas Trophy 2018 final.

Bangladesh's third Asia Cup final in last 6 years (4 tournaments):
vs Pak in 2012
vs Ind in 2016
vs Ind in 2018

Pakistan vs Bangladesh in ODIs:
1986 - 2014: P 32; Pak 31; Ban 1 (25 of those wins in succession)
2015 onwards: P 4; Pak 0; Ban 4

Sarfraz: We are obviously not feeling good. As a team we have not done well. Our performance has been very poor. As a player, I have done really badly too. I should have done better. We were poor in every facet of the game. There were lot of batting collapses for us in the tournament. Fakhar is our main batsman, he failed to perform in this tournament and Shadab was hit by injury too. We have to play well to beat good teams. Our batting was the main reason for our defeat in this tournament. Shaheen Afridi is a talented youngster, we have given him opportunities to showcase his talent and he has done well too.

23:40 Local Time, 19:40 GMT, 01:10 IST: The scorecards of Pakistan and Bangladesh look eerily similar. Five double-digit scores and the rest...um! A total bummer. Needing 240, Pakistan - much like Bangladesh - blew themselves up in the face at the start by losing three key wickets inside five overs. And when Malik walked in to join Imam-Ul-Haq a ray of hope emerged expecting revival of sorts, but as they so often say: A moment of brilliance in the field can upend momentum and that's what skipper Mortaza did to Pakistan. Plucked out a bonzer of a catch to dismiss Malik, and although Asif Ali, along with Imam, reignited a comeback, the strangle applied by the Bangladeshi spinners proved to be too good against the inexperience of Pakistan's lower middle-order. Gotta feel for Junaid Khan and young Imam-Ul-Haq, the duo played out of their skins with ball and bat respectively but got very little, or perhaps, no support from the others to back up their commendable efforts.

Mustafizur to Shaheen Afridi, no run, blocked out and that's that. This is Bangladesh's first win over Pakistan in the 50-over format in Asia Cup. The DJ at the stadium knows his crowd and guess what's resonating across the stadium: Oh yes, it's the N-A-A-G-I-N. And the crowd go helter-skelter. Need I describe the dance moves?

Mustafizur to Shaheen Afridi, no run, 121ks, short of length on the stumps, Shaheen Afridi hops back and plays out a compact defence under his eyes

Mustafizur to Shaheen Afridi, no run, the cutters keep coming from the ocean of Fizz, a swing and a miss outside off

Mustafizur to Shaheen Afridi, no run, smashes the full ball from off to mid-off

Mustafizur to Shaheen Afridi, no run, off-cutter bowled on back of a length, Shaheen Afridi exposes his stumps and swishes. Past his top-edge

Mustafizur to Shaheen Afridi, no run, picks the slower delivery and clubs it over mid-wicket, once again the fielder in the deep picks it on the bounce

38 from 6 balls then

Rubel to Junaid Khan, no run, chips the fullish delivery from off-stump, on the bounce to the fielder at mid-off. Rubel has a wry smile as he completes his spell with 1/38 off 8 overs

Rubel to Shaheen Afridi, 1 run, makes room and drills the full ball to mid-off. Mortaza puts in the dive once again, this is commitment of the highest class from the Bangladeshi skipper