Afridi and Fakhar shine as Pak live to fight another day

Pak beat Bangladesh by seven wickets in Kolkata to stay alive in the World Cup

- Dhiman Sarkar

Arms spread and reaching out to the sky, Shaheen Shah Afridi's celebration is regal. He has had an iffy World Cup but in a game Pakistan needed to win to survive their time in India still hangs by a thread, mind you Afridi hit the right length and rocked Bangladesh with a double whammy they couldn't recover from.

A game that started with Waqar Younis ringing the ceremonial bell at Eden had, at the halfway stage, fast bowlers taking eight wickets and fittingly a hint of reverse swing as Pakistan cleaned up Bangladesh for 204 in 45.1 overs. Swinging his arms with abandon, Fakhar Zaman did the rest.

On a wicket where batting became easier, unlike the strip used in Saturday's game, Zaman unfurled a smorgasbord of shots, the pick of which was an upper cut off Mustafizur Rahman. Or, you could choose the roundhouse whack off Taskin Ahmed. More orthodox in shot selection, Zaman's opening partner Abdullah Shafique was the perfect foil as Pakistan won by seven wickets in 32.3 overs.

The openers stitched together Pakistan's second century-plus stand in this World Cup. By the time Mehidy Hasan Miraz trapped Shafique (68 off 69 balls; 9x4,2x6) on the sweep, Pakistan had made 128 and were eyeing at improving their net run rate which, along with favourable results in other games, could be their lifeline in this tournament.