Bangladesh's Asian Games cricket campaign ended in Nisshin on Thursday. Pakistan won the rain-hit semi-final by six wickets and will now play for gold.
The match was cut to 13 overs per side because of a wet outfield. Pakistan finished the chase with nine balls to spare with Abdul Samad's unbeaten 30 off 15 balls (five fours, one six). He and Hasan Nawaz (27 off 22) added an unbroken 59 for the fifth wicket.
Bangladesh's bowlers made early breakthroughs. Mahedi Hasan removed captain Sahibzada Farhan for one in the first over. Nasum Ahmed dismissed Maaz Sadaqat, Mustafizur Rahman got Saim Ayub and Rishad Hossain took Usman Khan. But Nawaz hit Nasum for two sixes and Samad then took Mustafizur apart to seal the win.
Earlier, Bangladesh struggled to build momentum. Openers Saif Hassan and Tanzid Hasan hit a six each early on but Saim Ayub gave away just three runs in his first two overs. Litton Das fell to a reverse sweep and Arafat Minhas removed Tanzid and Parvez Hossain Emon.
Towhid Hridoy smashed 16 runs off Abrar Ahmed in the sixth over and added 53 with Mosaddek Hossain for the fifth wicket. Pakistan's loose bowling helped with 19 extras including 15 wides.
Sufyan Moqim ended the fightback in the 12th over, dismissing both Hridoy and Mosaddek. Bangladesh passed 110 but it was not enough.
Final Scorecard: Pakistan 112 for 4 (Samad 30*, Nawaz 27*, Rishad 1-12) beat Bangladesh 111 for 7 (Hridoy 42, Moqim 3-26, Minhas 2-23) by six wickets.
