Picture Credit: Twitter
With T20 World Cup action coming to an end, the focus has now shifted to some exciting bilateral series taking place in the sub-continent. As India welcomed New Zealand, Bangladesh is hosting Pakistan for a 3-match T20I series which kicked off in Dhaka on Friday. Although the Tigers had a disappointing run in UAE, it is no secret that they are a force to reckon with at home and it was never going to be a stroll in the park for Babar Azam's side.
On a challenging wicket at Sher-e-Bangla stadium, Bangladesh put up a fighting total of 127/7 in 20 overs. The stage was set up for a tricky run-chase but not many would have imagined that the contest would get extremely exciting because of a bizarre incident on the field.
Lapse of concentration for Shoaib Malik
It all happened when Pakistan lost a few quick wickets in powerplay, with the score reading 23/3 in 5 overs. This is when the experienced campaigner - Shoaib Malik - walked out to bat for the Men in Green. The onus was on him to get his side back into the game by playing some sensible cricket in the middle. However, he had to go back to the pavilion without scoring a single run due to a major lapse of concentration.
On the final ball of the 6th over, Malik defended a ball off Mustafizur Rahman which went towards the wicket-keeper. As he was walking back towards the crease, he did not realize that Nurul Hasan had taken off his keeping gloves. Before Malik could even react, the ball had been thrown towards the stumps and a direct hit meant that the 39-year-old was run out, as his bat was still in the air.
Watch the video here:
The dismissal of Malik actually set up the match for an exciting finish as Pakistan needed 32 runs in final 19 balls (at the time of writing), with 3 wickets in hand.