The Pakistani pace trio of Shaheen Afridi, Haris Rauf and Naseem Shah wreaked havoc against Bangladesh in the first Super Four match of the Asia Cup 2023 at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore on Wednesday.
Bangladesh's captain Shakib-Al-Hasan couldn't stop himself from praising the young-and-deadly pace attack of the Green Shirts and also discussed the mistakes his side made during their batting.
"We lost early wickets in the start and we played some ordinary shots. On a wicket like this we shouldn't lose four wickets in the first ten overs, but it happens. Our partnership was good, thought we needed to bat 7-8 more overs. Very poor batting display on a surface like this but we have to move on to the next one," Shakib said.
The 36-year-old then went on to praise the Pakistani pacers and also opened up on what he thinks his team lack.
"They [Pakistan] are the no.1 team and these are the reasons. They have three world class bowlers who are making things easier for them. We have been doing well in the bowling department but batting is a bit hot and cold.
"We need to be more consistent. I thought our three seamers bowled brilliantly. Like Pakistan, our seamers have been bowling very well in the last couple of years. But unfortunately on a pitch like this you can't get wickets unless batters make mistakes.
"[On playing in SL] When I played in LPL, pitches were a bit slow, wickets were a little up and down and that should help us. So hopefully we will do well in Colombo."
It must be noted that Pakistan beat Bangladesh by seven wickets thanks to Imam-ul-Haq and Mohammad Rizwan's mature innings.
Imam top-scored for the winning team with his 78 off 84 which included nine boundaries.
While Rizwan — who came to bat when Pakistan were 74-2 — built a much-needed 85-run partnership with Imam and scored a total of 63 runs.
Meanwhile, in the first innings, Pakistani bowlers continued their exceptional performance as Bangladesh were all out for 193 runs while batting first.
Haris Rauf bamboozled Bangladesh's batting line-up and bowled an exceptional spell of 19/4 in six overs.
Naseem Shah picked up three wickets while Shaheen Afridi got only one to his name.