Salman’s career-best knock guides Pakistan to 329-9: ODI series against Bangladesh
Not for the first time in the series, Pakistan batsmen dominated the Bangladesh bowling as the hosts piled up 329-9 — their highest total in 23 One-day Internationals against Bangladesh, overlapping 323-3 at Multan in September 2003.
Salman continued his golden form with a career-best 136 off only 124 balls after Shoaib Malik had no hesitation in opting to bat first after winning the toss.
The left-handed opening batsman’s dominance form enabled him to lift his aggregate to a world record 451 runs in a five-match bilateral series, surpassing England’s Ian Bell who amassed 422 runs in a seven-match ODI series at home against India last year.
Salman, who slammed 132 at Lahore in the third one-dayer six days ago, also improved on Pakistan’s previous highest aggregate in a bilateral series when team-mate Mohammad Yousuf totalled 405 in five matches of the one-day series in Zimbabwe in 2002-03.
Younis Khan also made his presence felt after sitting out the previous matches with a typical knock of 69 as he and Salman added a record 178 in 179 balls for the second wicket.
Salman outscored his more experienced partner while peppering his innings with 14 boundaries and a six after Kamran Akmal was caught at slip in the fifth over for 10.
The 23-year-old opener scored most of his runs on the off-side — 69 coming in that arc — when he brought up his sixth ODI century off exactly 100 deliveries.
Younis started slowly before he got going. The right-hander, who negotiated 80 balls and struck four fours and a six, was caught at mid-on to provide Shahadat Hossain the first of his three wickets.
In fact, Bangladesh did extremely well in the death overs to curtail Pakistan innings by taking seven wickets for 99 runs, starting with the dismissal of Younis at the start of the 38th over.
The tourists looked comparatively sharp in the field on Saturday compared to their work in the previous matches, as illustrated by the excellent catches taken by Shakib Al Hasan and Mashrafe Mortaza to get rid of Salman and Shahid Afridi, respectively.
Mashrafe also excelled in his customary role of a strike bowler as he finished the series with four for 65 in this game. His new-ball partner Shahadat paid heavily for poor line and length, but was still able to take three wickets, including that of debutant Naumanullah.
To be fair to Naumanullah who waited so long to make his international debut, he didn’t a proper chance to show his mettle because came to the crease with only two overs remaining after being listed in the team-sheet to bat at No 3.
Apart from the marathon Salman-Younis partnership, the only noteworthy stand was provided by Shoaib Malik and Misbah-ul-Haq, who together added 52 in 34 balls.
While Bangladesh opted to retain the side that played in Multan on Wednesday, Pakistan’s XI made three changes with Younis Khan, Naumanullah and Wahab Riaz replacing Bazid Khan, Fawad Alam and Sohail Khan, respectively.
Victory in this match would Pakistan a record 11th successive win in One-day Internationals.
Scoreboard
PAKISTAN:
Salman Butt c Hasan b Razzak 136
Kamran Akmal c Siddique b Mortaza 10
Younis Khan c Reza b Hossain 69
Mohammad Yousuf c Razzak b Mortaza 22
Shoaib Malik st Ghosh b Razzak 27
Shahid Afridi c Mortaza b Hossain 4
Misbah-ul Haq c Razzak b Mortaza 35
Naumanullah b Hossain 5
Wahab Riaz lbw b Mortaza 3
Umar Gul not out 1
Mohammad Asif not out 5
EXTRAS: (LB-5, W-7) 12
TOTAL: (for nine wkts, 50 overs) 329
FALL OF WKTS: 1-28, 2-207, 3-230, 4-251, 5-261, 6-314, 7-314, 8-319, 9-323.
BOWLING: Mortaza 10-0-65-4; Hossain 10-0-76-3 (2w); Razzak 10-0-56-2 (5w); Hasan 10-0-52-0; Mahmudullah 6-0-44-0; Reza 4-0-31-0.
BANGLADESH: Tamim Iqbal, Junaid Siddique, Aftab Ahmed, Mohammad Ashraful, Shakib Al Hasan, Mahmudullah Riad, Farhad Reza, Mashrafe Mortaza, Dhiman Ghosh, Abdur Razzak, Shahadat Hossain.
UMPIRES: Steve Bucknor (West Indies) and Nadeem Ghouri (Pakistan).
TV UMPIRE: Zameer Haider (Pakistan).
MATCH REFEREE: Mike Procter
(South Africa).