Asia Cup hosts Bangladesh can all but seal a place in the final of the tournament on Wednesday when they take on Pakistan in Dhaka. Pakistan know defeat will mean they are out of the competition so the stakes are high in this one.
The Tigers have rebounded from their opening defeat to India nicely with wins over the UAE and Sri Lanka. The way they dominated Sri Lanka bodes well for them in this match. If there is a concern over them it is that not all of their batsmen look in great form apart from Sabbir Rahman. If they are to go as far as they would like in this tournament he will need support from those around him.
Bangladesh suffered a bit of a blow after that win over Sri Lanka with the news that a side strain has ruled Mustafizur Rahman out of the remainder of the tournament. He has been replaced by Tamim Iqbal and you would think given the lack of runs around Sabbir that Tamim will go straight in.
Pakistan bounced back from their humbling at the hands of India with a solid win over the UAE. There were times in that match when they looked under pressure but a solid partnership from Shoaib Malik and Umar Akmal guided them to a comfortable win in the end.
Unless there is a late injury for Pakistan I wouldn’t expect too many changes although the debutant Mohammad Nawaz went around the park a little so he might sit this one out with Imad Wasim ready and waiting on the sidelines.
It is hard to bet on a match when either of these two are playing given their inconsistency but when they play each other it is even harder! Generally though Pakistan have the edge when these sides meet. They’ve won seven of their eight meetings in this format of the game although Bangladesh won the last game they played.
Both these sides have shown batting fragilities in this tournament and both have decent looking bowling attacks so on these tricky pitches I’m expecting plenty of wickets to fall here. Hardly any top order has got going in this tournament and both teams have bowled well at the death so far so I think we can get 14 wickets in this one.
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