Pakistan won the fourth consecutive game of the World Cup, but alas, that was not enough for them to secure a place in semis. Had they played up to their potential from the beginning of the tournament, they would have been in the semis easily.
Pakistan opted to bat first to score an unrealistic score of 500 in 50 overs, started slowly and the intent was missing. The openers added just 23 runs in 7 overs. However, Babar Azam and Imam-ul-Haq added 157 runs for the second wicket. Both scored at run a ball pace taking Pakistan to 180 in 32 overs. Babar Azam (96) missed to score another hundred, but Imam went on to score his maiden World Cup hundred before getting out as hit-wicket.
Mustafizur Rahman took another five-wicket haul which stopped Pakistan from scoring a total of over 350. The only other batsman who scored runs and helped Pakistan to score over 300 was Imad Wasim; he smashed 43 off 26 with six fours and 1 six. Pakistan scored 315 for 9 in 50 overs.
Bangladesh never looked like chasing the target. Only Shakib (64) scored some vital runs, and the rest of the batsmen couldn’t score much after a decent start. Shaheen Afridi took six wickets for 35 runs, ended the Bangladesh innings at 221. He became the youngest bowler to take a five-wicket haul in a World Cup match.
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- Shaheen Afridi is the youngest bowler to take a five-wicket haul in a World Cup game.
- Imam-ul-Haq is only the second ODI batsman to be dismissed hit wicket at Lord’s after West Indian Roy Fredricks (against Australia in 1975).
- Imam-ul-Haq is only the second Pakistani batsman to register an ODI century at Lord’s after Sarfaraz Ahmed (105 v England in 2016).
- Shakib Al Hasan is now the 3rd player to score 600 or more runs in a World Cup edition after Tendulkar (673) and Hayden (659).
