Fielding failures galore

Minutes after a Shakib Al Hasan delivery whizzed past Shahid Afridi's leg stump, Mushfiqur Rahim gave Afridi another reprieve. He dropped what seemed to be a sitter as he jogged in from cover. The batsman had already given up but the ball popped out of the Bangladesh captain's hands. He was crestfallen.

Mohammad Hafeez got one to turn slightly at Imrul Kayes in the first over, the left-hander going on to edge the ball to Ahmed Shehzad at slip. He dived to his right, but the ball spilled out. Given how Pakistan's bowling and fielding went for the rest of the game, this was the omen.

When Imrul was actually caught, it was midway through Abdur Rehman's meltdown. It was the second delivery from Rehman, another full-toss but Imrul had struck it straight at deep midwicket where the catch was taken easily by Sohaib Maqsood. But the on-field umpires declared it no-ball after consultation with the TV umpire.

As Umar Gul prepared to bowl the 48th over, he warmed up by bowling to Mohammad Talha at long-off but Talha missed the ball and it trickled over the boundary. The crowd picked up the miss and went after Talha once again, after he had comically misfielded in the over before. Shahid Afridi came up to him and asked him to go to midwicket, a sensible move from a senior player to protect the newcomer.

When it comes to celebrating a personal milestone, Anamul Haque is becoming the Michael Slater of Bangladesh cricket. After he reached his fifty, he gave Imrul Kayes a hug and once he reached his hundred, he pumped his fist, leapt in the air towards the dressing-room. Mominul gave him a hug too, and Anamul's smile only abated after he got out the next ball.

Slater usually ran straight, running towards the dressing-room, but because the Mirpur dressing room is square of the wicket, he had to change track after scoring the hundredth run.

Shakib meant business for the 20 minutes he spent at the crease, on his return from a three-match ban. He finished off his short innings with a clip off the legs, high over midwicket as Umar Gul gifted him a length ball in the penultimate ball of the Bangladesh innings. The six took the home side to their highest ODI score.

The first bad decision in this game was when Sohaib Maqsood was given out caught behind off Mominul Haque in the 23rd over. He walked off almost laughing at umpire Nigel Llong as replays clearly showed that he had missed the ball by a fair distance.