Captain Shahid Afridi showed good form with the bat and ball as Pakistan started their ICC World Twenty20 campaign with a 55-run win over Bangladesh this afternoon.
Having won the toss and elected to bat first, Afridi saw opener Sharjeel Khan fall to the bowling of Arafat Sunny for just 18 runs.
However, the combination of Ahmed Shahzad (52) and Mohammad Hafeez (64) soon steadied the innings and took Pakistan beyond the 100-run mark.
The dismissal of Shahzad saw the skipper promote himself up the order and he responded by scoring 49 runs off just 19 balls - a haul that included four sixes.
A useful knock of 15 from Shoaib Malik towards the end of innings then helped Afridi's men to post 201-5 from their 20 overs.
It became apparent that the victory target of 202 runs was beyond Bangladesh in the first over of their reply when Soumya Sarkar was bowled by Mohammad Amir for a second-ball duck.
The team eventually reached 146-6 from their allotted 20 overs, with the one highlight being the half-century from Shakib Al Hasan that saw him become just the second Bangladesh player in history to reach 1,000 T20I runs.
As for Afridi, he snared two wickets from his four overs at the expense of 27 runs.
Liam Apicella
