Pakistan vs Bangladesh, ICC T20 World Cup 2016: Match Predictions, Pitch Report, Match Date and Time

Delighted Bangladeshi players celebrate after their win against Pakistan in the Asia Cup 2016

The Pakistan Cricket Team is set to take on their Bangladeshi counterparts in the second match of the sixth edition of the World T20 at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata at 3 pm IST. Bangladesh had ‘surprisingly’ humiliated the Pakistani team by 5 wickets during their Asia Cup encounter, a couple of weeks ago.

 

Can the Tigers repeat their fine performance against their bitter rivals or will the Pakistanis have the better of the so-called minnows today?

Here is our analysis:

Prediction:

A couple of years back, the prediction of a Pakistan – Bangladesh match would have gone in favour of the Pakistanis without even a hint of doubt. However, the times have changed and the current crop of Bangladeshi players under their T20 captain Mashrafe Mortaza have done some wonderful things in the recent past to make their stamp on the cricketing map.

Both the teams have fared quite decently in the Asia Cup that was held earlier this year losing a couple of matches each in the tournament. Pakistan lost to India and Bangladesh in their group stage matches whereas Bangladesh lost twice to India in order to finish as the runners-up in the competition.

The Bangladeshi batsmen are in fine form. But the likes of Tamim Iqbal, Shabbir Rehman, Mahamadullah and Soumya Sarkar have a tough challenge ahead of them against the impactful Pakistani bowling unit.

The Pakistani team had successfully defeated their Sri Lankans counterparts by 6 wickets as they chased down a total of 150 runs with four balls to spare in the final match of their Asia Cup campaign.

Looking at the conditions and current form, we think Bangladesh are the slight favourites in this match.

Pakistan – Bangladesh Statistics:

	Pakistan	Bangladesh
ICC T20 Rank	7th	10th
Highest Score	203/5	190/5
Last 5 T20Is Result	LLWLW	WWLWW

Pakistan – Bangladesh, Eden Gardens Pitch Report & Conditions:

The pitch in Eden Gardens has traditionally been a batsman friendly pitch. It also offered some turn in the warm-up match between Pakistan and Sri Lanka on Monday, though the bounce was moderate.

Wednesday's temperature in Kolkata should be somewhere around 28-32 degrees Celcius with 49% humidity.