'Bowlers were key'

Pakistan enjoyed their first good day of their tour at Khulna yesterday. With Bangladesh's best batsmen in, on a track that barely had anything in it for the bowlers, there was a chance the hosts could run away with the game and further attack Pakistan's low morale.

Instead, the visitors held their line and continued their disciplined bowling performance to bundle the Tigers out for a below-par score. The main difference yesterday was that the Pakistani fielders held on to their catches.

"We didn't believe that Bangladesh would collapse this way as the pitch was slow. But our bowlers bowled very well and the fielders today supported them to make it their day," remarked Pakistan's bowling coach Mushtaque Ahmed after the end of the day.

"The idea today was to avoid losing wickets and get a flow runs. This wicket requires some caution but you have to be positive as well. [Mohammad] Hafeez did very well. I will give him full credit for his outstanding performance," he added.

The former leg-spinner believed that wickets would be hard to come by on this pitch.

"It was really tough to get wickets here but quality bowlers adjust in any condition and our bowlers knew exactly how to test the batsmen. The pitch wasn't even helping spinners. But we had a plan with our field placement for them today.

"I was expecting Yasir Shah and Zulfiqar Babar to take more wickets. The way they were bowling, they deserved it. They did well and, combined with our fast bowlers, we executed our plan well," believed Mushtaque.