Pakistan beat Bangladesh by 7 wickets at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata during their group-stage ICC Men's Cricket World Cup 2023 face-off on Tuesday (October 31). While Bangladesh opted to bat first, Shaheen Shah Afridi found his missing mojo for the most of the competition and picked two wickets with the new ball to keep Bangladesh on the backfoot. Later, Haris Rauf reduced them to 23/3 and although there was a partnership between Litton Das and Mahmudullah which kept Bangladesh in the game, once they were into the tail, Pakistan's Mohammad Wasim finished it off with figures of 3 for 60, bowling out the opposition for 204.
In the run chase, Fakhar Zaman, coming in place of Imam-ul-Haq, scored 81 off 74 and along with Abdullah Shafique (68 off 69) put on a solid opening stand worth 128 to kill the chase in favour of Babar Azam & Co. Later, even though Mehidy Hasan Miraz scalped 3 wickets it was a comfortable win for Pakistan who won the match with 105 balls remaining. Mohammad Rizwan (26* off 21) and Iftikhar Ahmed (17* off 15) remained unbeaten in the end as Pakistan kept their hopes alive of securing a semi-final berth.
In contrast, Bangladesh are officially knocked out of the semifinal race in World Cup 2023 with six defeats from 7 matches. Even though England also have 2 points and continue to be at the bottom of the ten-team table, they have played a match less. Bangladesh's net run rate is still better than that of Bangladesh which is why they continue to be at the ninth place.
Pakistan have two more matches remaining against New Zealand and England. They will travel to Bengaluru for the fixture against the Kiwis on November 4 before returning to Kolkata for their final round-robin match against the defending champions.