Stats Analysis

Middle-over batting costs Bangladesh

Stats highlights from Pakistan's two-run win in the Asia Cup final

Madhusudhan Ramakrishnan
22-Mar-2012
Shahid Afridi, who came up with an all-round display, now has the most match awards among Pakistan players  •  AFP

Shahid Afridi, who came up with an all-round display, now has the most match awards among Pakistan players  •  AFP

In the end, Bangladesh came ever so close to their greatest triumph but missed out by just two runs. Here are stats highlights from the narrowest win in the history of the tournament
  • Pakistan won the Asia Cup for only the second time. They had previously made finals in 1986 and 2000, both against Sri Lanka; they lost the first and won the second. It is also the closest margin of victory in terms of runs in the history of the tournament. Bangladesh, on the other hand, not only came close to winning their first major tournament but also just missed out on the rare feat of beating three major subcontinent sides in consecutive matches. This is also the fifth time that Bangladesh have failed to chase a target under 250 in ODIs in Mirpur.
  • Tamim Iqbal became the first Bangladesh batsman to score four consecutive one-day half-centuries. He is also the only Bangladesh player to score four half-centuries in a single tournament. He was level on three fifty-plus scores with Shahriar Nafees and Mohammad Ashraful before the game. Shakib Al Hasan, who scored his third half-century of the tournament, narrowly missed emulating Tamim's achievement. Shakib's scores in the tournament were 64, 49, 56 and 68.
  • Shahid Afridi, who scored a crucial 32 and picked up 1 for 28, was declared the Player of the Match. With his 29th match award, Afridi went past Saeed Anwar to become the Pakistan player with the most match awards in ODIs.
  • Bangladesh, after reducing Pakistan to 206 for 9, conceded 19 runs off the last over, which helped Pakistan score 236. In their innings, the Bangladesh top-order batsmen (Nos 2, 3 and 4) scored just 44 runs between them in 120 balls and played out 84 dot-balls in the process.
  • Saeed Ajmal once again bowled superbly to finish with 2 for 40 off ten overs. He was exceptional in the batting Powerplay, conceding just 15 runs in three overs. In Pakistan's four matches in the tournament, Ajmal conceded just 62 runs in 12 overs during batting Powerplays, at an economy-rate of 5.16, while picking up two wickets. His economical bowling meant that Bangladesh managed to score only 21 runs off the five overs of the batting Powerplay.
  • Mohammad Hafeez, who scored a century in Pakistan's loss against India, was unusually subdued in the final, scoring 40 off 87 balls. Among innings of 80 balls or more since 2007, it is the slowest innings (in terms of balls faced) by a Pakistan batsman.
  • The 89-run stand between Shakib and Nasir Hossain is the second-highest fourth-wicket stand in this Asia Cup, behind the 152-run stand between Misbah-ul-Haq and Umar Akmal against Sri Lanka. It is also the second-highest fourth-wicket stand for Bangladesh in the history of the Asia Cup.