After the run feast that happened in the early part of the day, therewas nothing much to look forward to as Pakistan took the field

Anand Vasu02-Jun-2000After the run feast that happened in the early part of the day, therewas nothing much to look forward to as Pakistan took the field. MaybeWasim Akram would charge in and make the ball talk. Even that did nothappen. At the end of the day, it made absolutely no difference to theresult. Pakistan go through to their next encounter in the Asia Cupagainst India tomorrow, having beaten Bangladesh by 233 runs at theBangabhandu stadium on Friday.The crowd went silent as wicket after wicket fell on what was asdocile a wicket as you would see. Habibul Basher who made a halfcentury against India provided the lone resistance. Even that was onlya token resistance. His 23 provided the crowd with some relief from aseemingly unending list of soft dismissals.For Pakistan, the wickets were shared around. Abdur Razzaq bowled thestraightest of the lot and was the most successful, bagging threewickets. Bangladesh ended on 87 all out. Shariar Hossain could not batafter as he was seriously dehydrated earlier in the day and left thefield. This was Bangldesh’s lowest total in limited overs cricket. Toadd insult to injury, this was also the largest margin of victory in alimited overs match beating the 232 run thrashing that Australiahanded out to Sri Lanka in 1987.When cats run around among pigeons, mayhem is the only result. ImranNazir was licking the cream off his whiskers as bowler after bowlertried his luck at stemming the rot. Fortunately for the hosts SaeedAnwar was motoring sedately along at a run a ball. Driving the ballwith more elegance than the rampaging Nazir, Anwar found the gaps withconsummate ease.Nazir showed no restraint and his onslaught was so overwhelming thatthe crowd was on its feet in excitement. When the ball was up for thedrive it disappeared over either mid off or mid on. If the ball wasshort it was anybody’s guess where it disappeared. Even deliveriespitched well outside the off stump disappeared over mid wicket. Naziropened his shoulders and unleashed raw power. The fact that he wasdropped twice did little to deter the youngster.The man took the brunt of the bashing was roly poly Khaled Mahmudwhose two overs disappeared for 31 runs. Needless to say, he wasquickly removed from the attack by an embarrassed captain.Saeed Anwar walked across after one such dropped catch and cautionedhis opening partner. The next ball Anwar faced, the first of the dayfrom Naimur Rehman uprooted his off stump. Coming a bit down thetrack, Anwar played down the wrong line and lost his off stump. He hadcontributed 31 to a total of 83.Yousuf Youhana who more than helped Pakistan save one Test match inthe West Indies came in at one drop, much ahead of his customarynumber five position. His presence at the crease brought a semblanceof normalcy to the proceedings. Although he smacked the second ball hefaced to the fence, he was in principle at least more selective inshot making.With temperatures rapidly approaching the mid forties, and humidity atover 80% it was but natural that things slowed down. And at thehalfway mark of their innings, Bangladesh had lost one man to theweather. Shariar Hussain holding his thighs and calves fell flat onthe ground and simply could not get back up. He was soon half carriedoff the field by his team mates.There was no stopping Imran Nazir. Playing strokes all around thewicket, the youngster was going along merrily when a bit of badrunning between the wickets stopped him dead in his tracks. Afterstarting and stopping and starting again he was found short of hisground by a neat bit of fielding by Aminul Islam.Youhana was joined by Inzamam ul Huq out in the middle and from theword go neither were in any manner of strife. All of a sudden, aglance at the scoreboard revealed the fact that Youhana had helpedhimself to 80 runs. Against the grain of play, Nazir was dismissedwhen he looked good for a century. The same happened with Youhana.Overbalancing against left arm spinner Enamul Hoque, Youhana was a tadlate getting back to his ground and Khaled Masud behind the stumps hadthe bails off in a flash.The hugely popular Shahid Afridi walked out to a generous round ofapplause from the crowd. After playing and missing at a good manyballs, Afridi finally connected. And the result was the same each time- the ball went crashing to the fence. Having adopted the mid wicketfence as his preferred destination, Afridi clouted everything that wasbowled at him in that direction.At the other end Inzamam was all smiles as he toyed with the bowling.Standing tall, the man from Multan drove superbly through both off andon side. If Afridi was the beast, Inzamam was the beauty. Using defttouches, a dab around the corner and a tap past short third manInzamam gathered runs at a good pace. As the innings drew to a closehowever, no one was in the mood for anything delicate. Taking turns,Afridi and Inzamam clouted the ball round the park. Even when they didhit the ball straight to the fielder the catches were grassed.The two remained unbeaten as Pakistan posted 320, the highest score inthe Asia Cup competition. Inzamam was on 75 and Afridi 45 when theumpires ended the action and took the players off the field. Fiftyovers of maximum viewing pleasure had come to an end.One must however spare a thought for the Bangladesh side. Pushing hardfor Test status that they will in all likelihood attain in the nearfuture, the team was helpless and often clueless. Taken most to taskwas mediumpacer Khaled Mahmud whose 10 overs cost him and Bangladesh81 runs.