Bangladesh vs Pakistan MOMENTS

Babar overtakes Miandad

There was a period of play in the middle overs when the match could have turned in Bangladesh's favour. After an expensive first spell from skipper Mashrafe Bin Mortaza, Shakib Al Hasan and Mosaddek Hossain had dried up the runs, conceding just 24 runs from overs 19 to 25. The second-wicket partnership between Imam ul Haq and Babar Azam was still shy of the century mark. Mustafizur Rahman was brought back into the attack and off the fourth ball Babar, on 57, unleashed a cut that flew at catchable height to Mosaddek at point, but he spilled it. Having failed to cash in on the pressure he helped create, Mosaddek was then on the receiving end in the very next over. He got one to turn sharply and catch the edge of Babar's bat, but keeper Mushfiqur Rahim could not get a glove on the ball before it thudded into his pad. Not only did the errors deny Bangladesh a chance to break the defining partnership of the innings, but it also helped Babar Azam edge the legendary Javed Miandad for his country's record of most runs in a single World Cup.   

The Inzamam strain

Nephew of the peerless Inzamam-ul-Haq, Imam-ul-Haq showed yesterday many traits of his uncle while compiling a match-defining century. The bespectacled batsman's gifts of timing and accumulative batting style are similarities that he shares with Pakistan's second-highest Test run-scorer and 1992 World Cup winner. But those who remember Inzamam will also remember him for giving cricket some of its lighter moments. Apart from his comical run-outs, there was one instance in 2006 at a Test in Headingley when he overbalanced after missing a sweep against Monty Panesar and then tumbled over the stumps as he fell backwards, but his ample midsection took the bails off, resulting in a hit-wicket dismissal.

Imam could not quite match his uncle in the comedy stakes, but displayed a tendency to be caught in his own world. Just after reaching his hundred, he flicked Mustafizur off his hips and ran a single, but the Bangladesh players were pointing at the stumps. Imam's back leg had skidded into the base of the stumps and dislodged the bails. Like his uncle, who appeared clueless during his many run-outs, Imam had no idea that he had trod on the stumps. Single-minded pursuit of runs at the expense of all else runs in the family, it seems.