A dismal end to Pakistan and Bangladesh's Champions Trophy 2025 campaigns. Group B is on the line, though England have already been eliminated. Afghanistan will face Australia tomorrow in Lahore. The winner will march into the semis.
For now, this is me AkshayaKrishna Polya, signing off on behalf of my co-commentators Akshay Bhide and Pritam Dey and scorer/analyst Zeeshan Naiyer. We will meet again. Until then, it's cheers!
Najmul Hossain Shanto (Bangladesh Captain): "Obviously very disappointing. We cannot control these things. We wanted to play today but rain is never in our control.
Yeah, I think if you look at the two matches we played. Although we lost both of them, the way we played, we showed some fight and we manage to hold the match for a long period of time. We made a few mistakes which costed us and we will try to learn from our mistakes. Going forward we will make proper plans and will try to execute them.
Yes, very happy with the pacers. I think we have always struggled with our bowling but in the last 2 years, we have got some quality fast bowlers. They have always stepped up whenever required. Especially the likes of Nahid Rana, Taskin, Mustafizur and now we have a quality spinner like Rishad Hossain, who is a wrist spinner. Players are doing well and I am sure they will improve going forward as well. They will do the best for the team.
We need to work on rotating strikes in the nets. It is important to practice properly in the nets and then execute the same in the match. I hope the boys will understand now what needs to be done."
Mohammad Rizwan (Pakistan Captain): "It has been raining in the last few days. You can't do anything about it. The expectations from the whole nation is high but we didn't perform.
You can learn from the mistakes. Hopefully, we can do from it and we are going to New Zealand next and we can improve there. We can do better in that series.
Basically, whenever the guy who was going to perform well in Australia and here, he is injured. The team gets disturbed. But you have to look forward as you are playing for Pakistan. We didn't give it as an excuse. We didn't give an excuse that Saim Ayub was injured and Fakhar Zaman was injured.
Bench strength of Pakistan. We have five teams in Champions Cup. We can't look at such a higher level like other teams. You have to see what Pakistan cricket has at the moment.
I can't say anything. It's disappointed. The whole expectation is very high. It's disappointed that we didn't perform well. Hopefully, we will do hard work more and perform well in the next tournament."
-This was the first time Pakistan was involved in a washout in the Champions Trophy
-This was the third rain-abandoned fixture Pakistan were involved in ICC ODI events
-This was the second rain-abandoned game for Bangladesh in CT
4 PM IST and 3:30 PM Local Time: That is it. The match has been abandoned! Persistent rainfall has turned the Pindi Cricket Stadium into a big swimming pool, which has forced the match officials to call off the fixture without a toss! Pakistan and Bangladesh share a point each, which remains their only point in the tournament. Both teams finish their Champions Trophy 2025 campaign without a single win.
With this, Pakistan bag an unwanted record, becoming the only host nation not to win a single game in the whole tournament since the Group Stages were introduced in CT. This is their second Champions Trophy campaign without a single victory, with 2013 remaining their worst tournament.
So, Bangladesh finish third in Group A ahead of Pakistan, courtesy of a better net run rate. Sunday's fixture between New Zealand and India in Dubai will decide who will finish at the top of the group.
3:52 PM IST & 3:22 PM Local Time: The rain continues to hammer down in Rawalpindi, and any chance of play today looks highly unlikely. Itβs only a matter of time before the match officials make the inevitable call to abandon the game. To make matters worse, large puddles have formed in the outfield.
3:43 PM IST and 3:13 PM Local Time: We have already started losing overs! It is pelting down and another update is expected to come at 4 PM IST and 3:30 PM Local Time.