Asia Cup 2023: Pakistan suffers embarrassing moment vs Bangladesh as floodlights fail, players leave field

Pakistan’s suffered a huge embarrassment during their Asia Cup 2023 contest on Wednesday, September 6 against Bangladesh as the players were forced to leave the field. The official hosts of the Asia Cup 2023, Pakistan batters and Bangladesh fielders had to leave the field after one of the floodlights went off during the contest. The incident occurred at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore as play for halted for a better part of 20 minutes.

What was the incident?

With Pakistan 15/0 in their innings, the floodlights at the Gaddafi Stadium went off creating unsuitable conditions for playing. The incident occurred at the end of the fifth over as Pakistan batters Fakhar Zaman (13) and Imam-ul-Haq (2) were in the middle. The players and the umpires had no idea of what had happened and initially waited in the middle to see if the situation could be resolved.

Interestingly, only one tower of floodlights went off while others were working smoothly at the Gaddafi Stadium. The lights would then return in 20 minutes as Pakistan would continue their run chase. Babar Azam’s men had to chase 194 runs after Bangladesh were bowled out for 193.

Earlier, former Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Najam Sethi had trolled the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) for scheduling the Asia Cup in Sri Lanka. ACC initially thought to switch venues for the tournament as the Colombo venue was rain-affected. The ACC planned to switch the matches to Hambantota but did not make the plan official as both PCB and the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) agreed to stay at the venue.

What happened in the contest?

Pakistan pacers Haris Rauf and Naseem Shah shredded Bangladesh's batting order to help the hosts bundle out visitors for 193 in just 38.4 over in the Super Four clash. Pakistan's pace attack was too superheated for Bangladesh as except for Shakib Al Hasan (53) and Mushfiqur Rahim (64) other batters failed to score big. Rauf was the chief destructor as he bagged four while Naseem Shah claimed three and Shaheen Afridi scalped one.

Put to field first, Pakistan's pace attack troubled Bangladeh's opener from the very start. Naseem Shah drew first blood as he dismissed Mehidy Hasan Miraz for 0 in the second over of the game.

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