Champions Trophy warm-up: Tamim ton in vain as Pakistan edge Bangladesh

Pakistan beat Bangladesh by two wickets in their warm-up match of the 2017 Champions Trophy at a short Edgbaston Cricket ground in Birmingham on Saturday. Chasing Bangladesh's 341 runs for the loss of nine wickets in 50 overs, Pakistan reached their target with three balls to spare. All-rounder Shoaib Malik led the way for Pakistan with a 66-ball 72. Youngster Mehedi Hasan Miraz was the most successful bowler for Bangladesh with two wickets. Earlier, opening batsman Tamim Iqbal smashed a blistering hundred as Bangladesh posted a huge total after skipper Mashrafe bin Mortaza opted to bat first. The hard-hitting left-hander struck four sixes and nine boundaries in his 93-ball 102 while opener Imrul Kayes, batting at No 3 in place of the in-form Sabbir Rahman, scored 61 off 62 balls. The rest of the batsmen all chipped in to guide the Tigers to a big total. However, openers Tamim and Soumya Sarkar made a quiet start. At one stage, Bangladesh were batting on 32 in eight overs. Soumya was the first batsman to be dismissed as he was caught at slip off the bowling of left-arm seamer Junaid Khan for 19. Tamim and Imrul then added 142 for the second wicket before the latter was trapped in front while trying to slog sweep leg-spinner Shadab Khan. Tamim, on the other hand, reached his fifty in 39 deliveries and continued to charge the Pakistan bowlers. His towering six over long off off Junaid coming down the track was one of his four magnificent sixes of the day. The 28-year old, who is in terrific form right from the tri-nation series in Ireland but was somehow unable to score a hundred, finally reached his century in 88 balls. At that time, the Tigers were eyeing a total of somewhere around 400. Tamim though departed just after reaching his hundred while trying to smack a slog sweep off Shadab only to top-edge to the short third man fielder. Wicketkeeper-batsman Mushfiqur Rahim started off with a couple of sixes but was dismissed after scoring 46 off 35 balls while all-rounders Shakib al Hasan (23) and Mahmudullah (29) and youngster Mosaddek Hossain (26) scored quick twenties but were unable to go beyond. Junaid picked up 4/73 from his nine overs while medium pacer Hasan Ali and Shadab took two wickets each for Pakistan.BRIEF SCOREPakistan 342/8 in 49.3 overs (Malik 72, Fahim 64*, Miraz 2/30) beat Bangladesh 341/9 (Tamim 102, Imrul 61, Mushfiq 46) by two wickets