The first of the Super Four matches of the 2023 edition of Asia Cup, the only one of the six such matches held at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore, witnessed a delay for a bizarre reason on Wednesday evening during the clash between Pakistan and Bangladesh. In the early part of the second innings, after Pakistan had kicked off their chase of 194 on a promising note to take a step closer to making the finals for the second consecutive year, the match was halted by the on-field umpires as one of the floodlights had stopped functioning leaving Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) red-faced.
It happened at the end of the fifth over of Pakistan's successful chase of 194 when the floodlights began to malfunction, leading to the match being stopped for close to 20 minutes. Pakistan openers Fakhar Zaman and Imam-ul-Haq had gotten the team off to a cautious start against the Bangladesh new-ball pair of Taskin Ahmed and Shoriful Islam, scorings 15 runs off the first 30 balls when one of the light towers went off.
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The players were then seen leaving the field as there was insufficient light for the match to continue. The match remained halted for about 18-20 minutes before it started coming on and later resumed. The exact reason for the malfunction is yet to be known, but the incident sparked a meme fest on social media leaving PCB, one of the host organisations of the Asia Cup, embarrassed.
{{/usCountry}}The players were then seen leaving the field as there was insufficient light for the match to continue. The match remained halted for about 18-20 minutes before it started coming on and later resumed. The exact reason for the malfunction is yet to be known, but the incident sparked a meme fest on social media leaving PCB, one of the host organisations of the Asia Cup, embarrassed.
{{/usCountry}}Earlier in the evening, Bangladesh top-order struggled against the Pakistan pace trio of Shaheen Afridi, Haris Rauf and Naseem Shah as they went three down for 45 in the eighth over before veteran batters in Mushfiqur Rahim and captain Shakib Al Hasan scripted a century stand with either of them getting to their respective fifties. However, their efforts were not enough as Naseem, who had left the field midway through the innings with a shoulder injury concern, and Rauf cleared the lower order, folding Bangladesh for just 193 in 38.4 overs.
The pace troika, deemed one of the deadliest pace attack in white-ball cricket at present, picked eight wickets between themselves.
In response, opener Imam-ul-Haq's 78 and Mohammad Rizwan's 63 was enough to guide Pakistan to a seven-wicket win in just 39.3 overs.