Pakistan down Bangladesh to set up Asia Cup final clash v India

Pakistan beat Bangladesh by 11 runs in a make-or-break Super Fours contest on Thursday to book their place in Sunday's Asia Cup final where they will hope to make it third time lucky against arch-rivals India.

It was a virtual semi-final between two sides who both managed to beat Sri Lanka in the Super Fours but proved no match for defending champions India in the Twenty20 tournament.

Put in to bat, Pakistan posted 135-8 and even that modest total did not look a possibility when they were reeling at 46-4 at the halfway stage of their innings.

Shaheen Afridi (3-17) and Haris Rauf (3-33) led their spirited effort with the ball as Pakistan restricted Bangladesh to 124-9 to set up a mouthwatering clash with India, who have beaten them twice already in the tournament.

"If we can win these kind of games, then we must be a special team," Pakistan captain Salman Agha said.

"We were like 10-15 runs short, there's no way I'm going to deny that. But I knew if we bowl like that, we can create pressure.

"In a game like this, when it's almost a semi-final, when you create pressure up front, it's hard to chase."

Pakistan made five runs from the first 10 balls, losing two key wickets in the process and were reeling at 49-5 in the 11th over.

Taskin Ahmed (3-28) removed Sahibzada Farhan in the first over and spinner Mahedi Hasan, sharing the new ball, dismissed Saim Ayub for the batter's fourth duck in the tournament.

Pakistan's lower order, however, did not give up so easily.

Afridi (19) hit a couple of sixes while Mohammad Haris (31) and Mohammad Nawaz (25) made useful contributions down the order to take Pakistan past the 125-mark.

Almost mirroring their opponents' shambolic start, Bangladesh, rattled by Afridi's early double strike, slumped to 29-3 in the sixth over.

Afridi dismissed Parvez Hossain Emon and Towhid Hridoy to deny Bangladesh a strong start and went on to dismiss Shamim Hossain, who topscored for Bangladesh with a fluent 30.

Rauf then mowed down Bangladesh's lower order to secure their passage to the final.