As it happened - Bangladesh vs Pakistan in Adelaide

A team under pressure. A captain refusing to give up. The odds piling up. And then one fine day, the stars align.

Pakistan cranked up the deja vu in Adelaide on Sunday as they sailed into the T20 World Cup semi-finals. If anyone is still working on time travel, please follow this cricket team. They've made it 1992 again.

This game wouldn't even have played out this way if not for Netherlands shocking South Africa. Some people might even call it destiny.

The biggest casualty of this unreal series of events were Bangladesh and Shakib Al Hasan. His wicket turned this game, adjudged lbw on field, and upheld on DRS even though he was absolutely certain he'd nicked the ball.

Bangladesh were 71 for 1 at one stage. Then they lost their captain and could manage only 127. Advantage Pakistan.

OMG, a Masood top edge lands safely between two fielders. Three of them were tracking it. Long-on moving to his left, deep square leg to his right and midwicket running back

Next ball, Masood dabs the slower one to deep third and sneaks a second run. It's a tight one but he's done it well.

Next ball, Taskin oversteps. Taskin, who has carried this team on his back, oversteps with the equation on 30 off 28.

It's a free hit and 21-year old Mohammad Haris, playing only his second game of this World Cup, hits it for six!

This isn't 200 vs 200 but it's unreal pressure. And it looks like Pakistan have done enough. Haris has done enough.

Bangladesh hit back!

Litton Das, at a very straight short cover, had one stump to aim at and he hits it.

This game keeps see-sawing all the way through.

Pakistan have sent Shan Masood out to calm it down... who plays the reverse sweep first up?! T20 cricket. SMH!

Luck shifting?

Haris launches an Ebadot short ball over square leg. That's the short boundary.

Afif Hossain is there, looking directly into the sun.

He does well to take the catch, right on the edge of the boundary, but then he runs out of space. He knows he's running out of space and tries to release the ball, but by then, his foot had trod on the rope.

Pakistan and Haris get six. They now need 39 off 36. ESPNcricinfo's gives Pakistan a 96% chance of victory from here.

This game is calling out for that Stokes innings last night.

One big player not rising above the conditions, but understanding them, and working within them, to pick off the runs.

Who will be Pakistan's Stokes?

Bangladesh's bowlers have been so impressive, digging it into this off-paced pitch. No batter has been able to time the ball here. This is calculative cricket at its best, by a team who will be feeling like everything is going against them.

To do the basics right, in those conditions, takes a big heart. Well done, Bangladesh. (That said, they'll need to be sharper in the field)

Lbw appeal.

Run-out chance.

Four overthrows.

Everything's happening.

Ebadot goes full and straight and Nawaz swings all across it. Huge appeal. The umpire doesn't give it. Shakib grabs his cap and flings it to the ground in disgust.

Just fyi: the ball pitched outside leg so no lbw.

But in the middle of all that, Pakistan try to nick a run, as the ball wanders away to point. Shanto, the fielder there, is switched on. He grabs the ball quickly. Gets rid of it quicker. Both Nawaz and Mohammad Haris are stuck in the middle of the pitch and nowhere in the frame. A direct hit at the strikers', Nawaz would've been out.

The throw, with no one backing up, goes for four.

Nasum strikes.

Babar's gone.

25 off 33.

His numbers against Nasum are worse: 5 off 12.

Pakistan make a big move: promoting the left-handed Mohammad Nawaz up the order to mess with the Bangladesh spinners. "You are my match-winner," Babar said that night. Will it come true?

Then Ebadot gets Rizwan! The Bangladesh corner of Adelaide roars! Pakistan 61 for 2. They still need 67 off 52

They haven't been able to boss things because this is a difficult pitch for strokeplay; very hard to hit through the line unless there's pace on the ball.

At the halfway stage, Pakistan are 56 for 0. They need 72 off 60 balls to make the semi-finals. It's tense, people. It's tense.

Bangladesh went left-arm spin to open the innings.

Nasum Ahmed has a pitch that is offering him a lot. Turn, which continues to be unsettling given this is Australia. And Bounce, which will be fairly novel for him coming off the slow and low turners back home.

He's kept beating the top edge of the two right-handers as they try to cut him.

Nasum's first over

Nasum's second over

Nasum's third over

Babar's been like the printer that got jammed in the office.

But as news trickled in of South Africa getting knocked out, things started to change.

Babar has been switched ALL the way on this game, adjusting the field to the millimetre, working bowling changes, coaxing the very best out of the talent available to him. And now here he is, with the bat, doing what he does best.

There's a boundary that he hits off Taskin. It's technically a flick, but it could just as easily be a straight drive through midwicket. Because the bat comes down so straight on the ball. And he's standing so tall.

That ball has no business being put away. Except it's in Babar's way.

Oh Bangladesh!

You needed early wickets.

You have one of the fast bowlers of the tournament running in so hard there's fire coming out of his boots.

Taskin Ahmed pounds the Adelaide pitch and wills it to help him. It's not been helping anything with pace on. But this time it does. There's movement. Sideways movement and it secures Rizwan's outside edge

It's a regulation catch for the wicketkeeper, to his right, but Nurul Hasan dives for some reason. It's a poor decision. He ends up going past the ball and dropping it.

Bangladesh get 127 on the board in a virtual quarter final.

They looked to get better than that when Shanto (54 off 48) was going well. But then the innings went pear shaped when they lost two wickets in the eighth over - one of which was Shakib Al Hasan in controversial circumstances. The Bangladesh captain did not want to leave the field when he was adjudged lbw to Shadab Khan. He called for DRS. DRS didn't help him; it didn't spot the inside edge that he was sure he got.

That's where the game turned.

And the time space continuum ripped and transported us back to 1992.

Shaheen Afridi reverse swung his way past a right-hander, just like Wasim Akram did all those years ago, picking up 4 for 22. Pakistan will believe this is a gettable target. It won't be easy, shot-making in Adelaide has been hard all day.

Speaking of Wasim, we had him in the latest episode of Stump Mic talking to Osman Samiuddin ahead of the release of his new autobiography Sultan. Wasim opened up about his post-career cocaine addiction, the Qayyum report, the 1996 World Cup quarter-final, and when the "Greek God" Imran Khan ordered a pint of milk at a nightclub in Sydney.

This is vintage Pakistan.

Shaheen Afridi has just bowled Mosaddek Hossain with an outswinging yorker from around the wicket in a World Cup in Australia

That's Wasim Akram to Allan Lamb lite.

Naseem Shah was getting reverse in the last over, the yorkers tailing into the right-hander.

Here Pakistan's main man, their left-arm hero, gets it to go the other way and the batter was little more than a cardboard cutout.

People, it's 1992 again!

Thirteen balls, three runs, three wickets. At the death

So there's the blueprint for Bangladesh when they come out to bowl; when they have Mustafizur Rahman haring in.

The Bangladesh captain can't believe it. He called for a review after being judged lbw on field by Adrian Holdstock. There seems a spike on UltraEdge but the third umpire Langton Rusere rules it as bat hitting ground. Athar Ali Khan on commentary says, "just from looking at the replays, I thought that was bat on ball."

Shakib just did not want to leave. He keeps talking to the umpires. He raises his hands, wondering what is going on. He was down the track while attempting the shot too. But it was fairly straight and fairly flat. That wasn't the problem. It is definitely hitting the stumps. But Shakib is certain he got an inside edge. Has to walk though

You remember the tweet, don't you?

Pakistan would have been feeling very raw that night. They had decisions go against them. They had Virat Kohli go against them. They would've felt like everything was against them.

That's when Babar Azam stepped up and rallied his troops and now here they are. With two wickets in two balls. Soumya Sarkar and Shakib Al Hasan are both gone!

Pakistan's ace legspinner is currently 2-0-17-0 having bowled everything to left-handers

Here's Mohammad Isam, ESPNcricinfo's Bangladesh correspondent: Shanto is finally getting the hang of white-ball cricket, after struggling for a couple of years. He made 71 against Zimbabwe, and although it wasn't a very aggressive knock, he did what the team had asked him to do. He allows the others to bat aggressively around him, but today he has had to pick up the pace himself particularly after Litton Das got out.

This is the same pitch that was used in the SA vs Netherlands game. It's already had 40 overs on it - during which time we realised that shot-making gets tougher as the match wears on. Especially when there's pace off.

Bangladesh, having gained the advantage of batting first at the toss, have made a concerted effort to try and get ahead of the game. They were playing shot after shot after shot in the powerplay. They got 40 for 1 out of it and if they do everything right, they may get to 160.

But that's the rub though. Doing everything against a high quality attack is not a given. And at times it doesn't even take a bowler's brilliance. It's something in the field. Or a brainfade -- like how Soumya Sarkar calls for a second run on an overthrow at the bowler Shadab's end in the 7th over. There is never a second on. Long-off backing up fires in the throw - but it's at the wrong end. It's at Soumya's and he'd committed to the double. Shanto was caught in the middle of the pitch and would have been out at the strikers'

At the end of this sequence, Soumya chucks his bat to the floor and Rizwan spreads his hands out and signals everyone to calm down.

And Shadab Khan is the culprit at short cover!

This really is a strange day!

The ball came right at him. Pakistan were looking at a double-strike. They were looking at collaring this game and taking it home. And with Shadab in the field, 99 times out of 100, they would have.

This is that one time they didn't and Shanto gets a life on 11 off 10.

In the end, the over, from Mohammad Wasim, looks like this (3.1 was the drop)

All that adrenaline, it can help, but it can also do this.

Litton was feeling it out there. The sound off the bat was like a sonic boom.

But it won't be heard in Adelaide anymore. He's hit a short ball angled across him straight to point. He's just guided it there. Like he was giving catching practice (although he probably was just looking for one behind the fielder)

Shaheen Afridi is Star Man once again.

This is a big game.

It needs a big player.

And here he is.

Litton Kumar Das!

He's whacked Shaheen for six over square leg. And he did it while halfway down the pitch and adjusting - on the fly - to a short ball coming at him.

It's serene hitting. It's a batter showing that he isn't afraid of what's in front of him. Bangladesh are making the right moves.

Nerves. There's a lot of nervous out there. Shanto gets Bangladesh off the mark on boundary count - but it's off the leading edge. Adelaide's square boundaries really are that tiny and it's reason to smile for the batter - and that's exactly what Shanto does.

Litton at the other end though is right in it. First ball he faced, from Shaheen Afridi, who is defo swinging it, he was down the track. That's not a shot. That's a statement. Bangladesh 6 for 0 in one over

Bangladesh: Litton Das (wk), Najmul Hossain Shanto, Soumya Sarkar, Shakib Al Hasan (capt), Afif Hossain, Mosaddek Hossain, Nurul Hasan, Taskin, Nasum Ahmed, Mustafizur Rahman, Ebadot Hossain (People in bold have been brought into the team)

Pakistan: Babar Azam (capt), Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Shan Masood, Mohammad Haris, Iftikhar Ahmed, Mohammad Nawaz, Shadab Khan, Mohammad Wasim, Shaheen Afridi, Naseem Shah, Haris Rauf

News has filtered into Adelaide. The fans know what's at stake. There's just that little bit extra in their flag waving. Some of them are arguing with each other, raising their collars, pumping their chances. If any of you thought this is just a game...

And then come the national anthems and the emotions start to pour. The players are belting it out. The people in the crowd have their hands over their hearts. Some of them look like they're possessed (but like in a nice way, not Exorcist-y). There's so much feeling in this game.

Whoever wins this game will play their semi-final in Sydney, which has been doing its best impression of the subcontinent. Slow bowlers are thriving there. Pakistan AND Bangladesh will feel perfectly at home. (All bets are off though if India lose to Zimbabwe)

This Bangladesh team has already gone where no Bangladesh team has gone before in a T20 World Cup. In Taskin Ahmed, they have a fast bowler who is obsessed with improving himself every day; every hour. In Litton Das, they have a batter who keeps upping his ceiling and will one day crash right through it. In Shakib Al Hasan they already have one of the games greatest allrounders in history. No one should be betting against them making the semi-finals.

This Pakistan team is quality. It has too much to have ever had any business looking like they were out of the tournament. Shaheen Afridi - even a not totally fit one - is scary as bad word staring with S (See, Rahul Dravid isn't the only one that can't say bad words starting with S). Haris Rauf is not flesh and blood - he is a bolt of lightning. Babar Azam is like that printer that's jammed up right now, but this opportunity might just be the kick up the bum he needs to be his old self.

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