Bangladesh vs Pakistan Women's Asian Games Preview & Tips - Bangladesh backed for Asian Games bronze medal

Pakistan Women were also easily beaten in the last round as their eight-wicket loss to Sri Lanka confirmed the former's place in the bronze-medal final. 

In their last 10 T20 meetings, Bangladesh have won six matches while Pakistan have notched four wins. 

Bangladesh Women went into their Asian Games semi-final clash with India as the inferior side, and the margin of defeat really underlined just how far behind the best side in the tournament they are. 

Unable to find the wickets to contain India's top-order, Bangladesh saw their opponents hammer their way to 195/4 with Shafali Verma's unbeaten century anchoring a big score. In reply, Bangladesh got nowhere near their target as they lost eight of their 11 batters for single-figure scores in a 114-run loss. 

Against Pakistan, the focus will be on using as much of the 20 overs on offer after they were skittled in 15.4 overs against India. Pakistan are not in the same league as India when it comes to their ability with bat and ball, which gives Bangladesh a far better chance of winning this one. 

The odds suggest Pakistan are sizeable favourites, but consecutive wins for Bangladesh and five wins in their last six T20 meetings shows Bangladesh have all the tools to beat their opponents. While I predict that this will be a tight match, I back the underdogs to come through and secure third-place. 

Pakistan Women may have battled to 177/4 against Sri Lanka in their semi-final meeting, but they saw their opponents easily secure an eight-wicket win that showcased the difference in quality between the pair. 

With 177 runs on the board, Pakistan's bowlers had a good score to defend. However, whereas Sri Lanka's bowlers were able to keep the score to a chaseable target despite only taking four wickets, Pakistan could do no such thing. The two wickets they took was not enough to curtail Sri Lanka's run scoring as they cruised to their target with 13 deliveries to spare. 

Against Bangladesh, Pakistan will hope for more of the same with the bat, but they need to take more wickets and keep their bowler's economy rates down. Four of their six bowlers went at 9.50 or more, and I predict that this will be the problem against Bangladesh as Pakistan fail to bounce back from defeat.