PAK vs BAN 41st Match, Super 12 Group 2 Prediction

PAK vs BAN Team Previews

Pakistan

Pakistan put in an absolutely rousing performance against South Africa and ended up defeating it quite comfortably by 33 runs in the end. Shaheen Afridi looked close to his best with the new ball, Mohammad Wasim Jr. was excellent at the death, and Shadab Khan had one of his best-ever games. 

Most importantly, Pakistan played fearless cricket. Iftikhar Ahmed and Shadab Khan counter-attacked when they could have gone in their shells. Mohammad Nawaz played well also before he got out in somewhat strange circumstances!

The benefit of having a deep batting lineup was clearly on display. Now, Pakistan would just like its world-class openers to find some form again. Mohammad Rizwan and Babar Azam have struggled so far and have continued to fail. The bowling lineup of Bangladesh is not the greatest and could give them a chance to find their touch again. 

Pakistan is the stronger team on paper. It also has a fantastic record against Bangladesh but with Pakistan, you never quite know what you are going to get one game from the next. 

Bangladesh

Bangladesh felt a bit hard done by in their previous match against India. The rain came down at the wrong time, the outfield was a bit wet when they resumed playing, and 'fake fielding' became an issue post-match. All of that needs to be forgotten and instead, Bangladesh needs to take heart from the manner in which Litton Das played. 

He counter-attacked single-handedly and showed Bangladesh they can compete with any team in the world. Even if one of the other batters had stayed with Litton Das for a while longer, Bangladesh would have been playing for its place in the semi-final just now. 

So is Bangladesh's batting good enough to compete regularly or was the previous match an anomaly? The latter seems more likely at this point in time. The confidence of that match will help Bangladesh but they simply do not have enough boundary hitters in their lineup.

The bowling lineup is decent without being outstanding. We like Shakib's aggressive use of Taskin Ahmed in the previous match. He could perhaps do the same in this game as but Pakistan's middle order is in good form and so Bangladesh will need quality at the end. 

Mustafizur Rahman and Shakib Al Hasan are the other leading bowlers for Bangladesh. Shoriful Islam and Hasan Mahmud can be targetted.