Pakistan beat Bangladesh by 7 wickets, sweep T20 series as Haris hits 107

Pakistan’s chase of 197 runs, including a nerveless century from Mohammad Haris, saw them triumph in their third T20 international match against Bangladesh, and wrap up a 3-0 series victory in Lahore.

In the third game of the series to be played on Sunday at Gaddafi Stadium in Pakistan’s eastern city, Pakistan asked the visitors to bat first after winning the first two matches and choosing to bowl first.

Sahibzada Farhan, Pakistan’s top scorer in the second T20I, was defeated by Mehidy Hasan Miraz in the first over, who had a difficult target of 197.

The old Pakistan may have crumbled under the pressure of losing a quick wicket, but Salman Agha’s new team, led by Mike Hesson, and maintained their scoring rate.

In order to keep the target in sight and maintain a high scoring rate, Saim Ayub and Haris combined for 92 runs as they battled the Bangladeshi bowling attack.

After scoring 45 runs off 29 balls, Tanzim Hasan Sakib sent Ayub home in the 10th over, but Haris had already assumed the role of the lead batter and kept the big shots coming.

In his 46-ball 107 innings, the wicketkeeper-batter kept Bangladesh out of contention for the majority of Pakistan’s innings with seven sixes and eight fours.

He accepted the Player of the Match award with a smile and said he had worked hard despite performing poorly for Pakistan recently.

He said, “I tried to learn from my mistakes and didn’t want to waste the chance I had to play in this series.”

Haris continued, “I didn’t want to play any unnecessary shots, but rather, I batted with the simple plan of “see ball, play ball.”

Before that, Bangladesh’s innings had already jumped off to a fast start thanks to Ayub and Faheem Ashraf, both of whom were opening bowlers for Pakistan.

The Bangladeshi batting lineup’s collapse soon after Tanzid’s departure in the 11th over led to a stand of 110 being set up.

The Tigers were unable to maintain the scoring pace set by the openers despite starts from Litton Das (22 runs) and Towhid Hridoy (25 runs).

The home team was under some pressure when they batted, but a total of 196-6 in 20 overs prevented that, and Pakistan’s lineup of attacking batters disregarded the pressure from the scoreboard and drove their team home with 16 balls to spare.

Salman, the captain of Pakistan and Haris when the winning runs were scored, expressed his satisfaction with the team’s consistency.

After the match, Salman said, “We want to test ourselves when things get difficult, and we wanted to chase to put the boys under pressure.”