Asia Cup 2018: Super-4s, Match 6, Pakistan vs Bangladesh – Trend Analysis

Pakistan and Bangladesh now stand a chance to be the second finalist of the Asia Cup 2018 and join India, who have been well ahead of the other teams. Bangladesh will be hoping to sneak in a win somehow as they did against Afghanistan and make it to their 3rd Asia Cup final (ODI and T20I) in four editions. Pakistan, on the other hand, have scores to settle against their arch-rivals India who they are yet to face in an Asia Cup final.

The Men in Green will be eager to show their supremacy over Bangladesh and head into the final with confidence. Both the teams have applied weird tactics in this tournament with respective to the toss. However, Abu Dhabi could suit both these teams though chasing teams didn’t crumble in the previous two games at this venue like in the Group Stage.

Pakistan:

Pakistan went against the trend and elected to bat first twice in two games against India in Dubai. It would be interesting to see if Pakistan change it even while playing at Abu Dhabi in a crucial game. As it appears, their intention will be to bat Bangladesh out of the game as they are not a really good chasing team.

However, Pakistan won their previous five ODIs in the UAE while chasing and might be tempted to bowl first if they are confident about their bowling even after a sore game against India. Shoaib Malik has a crucial part to play in that case as he averages 185.33 in successful ODI chases since 2015.

Bangladesh:

Bangladesh might continue their affinity with batting first as they did the same in Dubai against India, which is a better chasing venue than Abu Dhabi. Having won their previous game defending a total, Bangladesh would be hoping to post at least 250 once again if they win the toss. The numbers do back their strategy as they won all the five times they ended up posting 200+ while batting first this year. The two times they failed to defend was when the score was less than 180.

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