1-1 - Wicket! Mohammad Aamer has been one of the best up-and-coming players over the past year, and he doesn't take any time to nestle into this tournament. He ties down Tamim Iqbal for four balls, then beats Imrul Kayes with a beauty outside off stump before finishing the over with a wicket. Imrul takes on the short ball but top edges towards third man, and Misbah trots in to pouch the catch.
That's a very good score on this pitch, so that is surely too much for Bangladesh. They'll know they bowled poorly and essentially gave Pakistan some great batting practice, though credit must also go to the batsmen who never let any of the bowlers settle.
172-3 - Bangladesh's two seamers are bowled out so Abdur Razzak has to bowl the final over, and he does a pretty good job. Razzaq mishits over backward point for a couple and Misbah whacks down the ground for a couple of his own. Razzaq hits a full toss wide of long-off and runs hard for two to finish the innings. So there was a boundary in every one of the first 15 overs, and then not one in the last five.
164-3 - Wicket! It's all falling apart a bit for Pakistan, but they already have enough runs on the board to feel safe. Butt attempts to reverse sweep a straight one and has his off stump knocked back by Shafiul. That shot seemed a bit unnecessary when he's managed a healthy strike rate by playing percentage shots up to that point. Anyway, there are 10 balls for Abdul Razzaq and Misbah-ul-Haq to get as many as possible, and some good running grabs them six runs from four balls.
156-2 - The running has been much better since Afridi came in, with him and Butt pushing every two they possibly can. Wicket! Another awful piece of cricket results in Afridi's downfall. The final ball of Shakib's spell is a horrible wide full toss, and Afridi threw his bat at it without moving his feet and got a top edge to Mahmudullah at short third man.
149-1 - Afridi's bat now sports a sticker on the top of the face that says 'Boom boom'. Not sure whether that's just for him, or if he's launched his own range of bats. Either way it's not really doing the trick for him, though that's because he's trying to hit the ball too hard. Not a new problem for Afridi - when he's on form the ball tends to go miles, but when he's not it results in mishits, which is what happens here.
143-1 - Shakib returns and gets away with an awful full toss on Butt's legs, which the left-hander hits straight to square leg on the bounce. Wicket! Finally Akmal goes, and it's not the best piece of cricket. He came down the track to Shakib and got the ball on the full, but sliced the full toss straight to Razzak at backward point. Not surprisingly it's Shahid Afridi who comes in at number three, but it is a surprise that he doesn't have an enormous heave at his first ball. Instead he turns one out to deep midwicket, so that's the first over that hasn't contained a boundary. For the record, that was the third-highest opening partnership in Twenty20 internationals.
138-0 - Wham! He's timed that! Akmal gets his front leg out of the way and slams Mortaza over mid-off for six, and that was a flat one straight out of the middle of the bat. This is not the return that Mortaza would have hoped for, though in truth he hasn't bowled that badly aside from his first over. His final delivery is a good example of how well these two have batted, as Butt walks across his stumps to turn a full ball on middle stump past short fine leg for four.
124-0 - Butt gives himself room to thrash a half-volley over extra cover for four more. Down on the sidelines Pakistan coach Waqar Younis says they went out looking for around 150 or 160, but of course with this platform they're after a few more than that now. The key has been that there's been at least a boundary every over, whether it be putting away the bad ball or manufacturing a shot. Akmal grabs a second one in this over by lifting a short ball over backward square leg.
112-0 - Akmal throws everything into a drive over extra cover, but still fals a couple of inches short of his first maximum. He's played somewhat agriculturally at times in this innings, only to be outpaced by Butt who has been his usual graceful self.
104-0 - Suhrawadi Shuvo joins the attack, but bowls a rank long-hop to Butt and is dispatched over wide long-on for six. Got what it deserved, and that takes Butt to 49. A single takes him to his half-century (29 balls, 6x4s, 2x6s), and Akmal joins him two balls later (43 balls, 6x4s) as he trots down the pitch to smash back over the bowler's head for four. They haver eight overs to go absolutely crackers now.
92-0 - Butt registers the first six of the match with a flat hit over midwicket. Akmal picks his spot with a short ball later in the over to pick up two through point, and four singles make it 12 from the over. Bangladesh haven't found anyone who can build pressure through dot balls with the runs flowing freely. Meanwhile there's a good party going down in the stands - the sort of Caribbean flavour that was sorely missed during the World Cup in '07.
80-0 - Even Shakib is getting clubbed now, with Butt doing brilliantly to split two fielders in the deep on the leg side as he gets four off the first ball. I suspect Shahid Afridi will be padded up in the dugout now because with wickets in hand he could come in at first drop with a serious licence to swing the bat.
71-0 - Akmal is in the mood now, and he's having a go at everything. He clears his front leg to drive forcefully through extra cover for four - an excellent T20 shot - and then slogs two over midwicket and a couple more over extra cover. At this rate Pakistan could end up with 170, and already my early talk of an upset looks to have been blown out of the water.
61-0 - Here's Bangladesh's best bowler - their captain Shakib Al Hasan. He nearly bowls the first over without a boundary, but Butt makes sure things continue to tick over for Pakistan by coming down the track to hit the final ball just over the bowler's head for four.
55-0 - The fielding restrictions have passed, so we can expect plenty of spin now. Naeem Islam is the first of them, but like all the bowlers so far he serves up a boundary ball that ensures there's never any pressure on the batsmen. Butt is able to sweep away past short fine leg for four.
47-0 - The most impressive thing about Shafiul is the way he mixes his pace up, and Akmal is unable to predict the speed of the first four deliveries which are all on the money. The fifth ball is a low full toss though, and he laces it through the covers for four. The final delivery catches him on the back pad, but Rod Tucker turns down the appeals because the ball was sliding down leg side.
42-0 - Mortaza rolls straight into his third over, and both batsmen enjoy a slice of luck with inside edges back past their stumps. Butt makes the most of his let-off, coming down the pitch next ball to stroke Mortaza over mid-off for four. He really is a lovely player to watch when he's in form.
35-0 - The spin experiment didn't work out, so Shafiul Islam gets a chance to impress. He starts with some good variation in pace, but then drops a slower ball short and allows Akmal to pull away for four. With fine leg up in the circle, that's always going for runs. These easy pickings are making the batsmen's jobs quite simple, and so it's no surprise that emailer Danish Ali is backing Pakistan to win by 70 or 80 runs. At this rate that looks quite feasible.
28-0 - That's more like it from Mortaza, who hits the perfect length outside Akmal's off stump and beats an ambitious swish of the bat. He then gets the better of Akmal as the batsman pulls one that wasn't quite short enough, but the ball spoons over mid-on and is dropped by Mohammad Ashraful as he runs back and gets himself in a tangle. Butt thenres another lucrative over by coming down the track to square-drive through point for four - the shot of the match so far.
19-0 - Bangladesh skipper Shakib Al Hasan throws the ball to left-arm spinner Abdur Razzak reaches for his second delivery and gets on top of a strong sweep that runs away to the backward square leg boundary. Those runs were more a result of good batting, but he's then thrown an easy four runs by Razzak - wide outside leg and easily helped past short fine leg.
10-0 - Akmal gets Pakistan up and running with a late cut that's square enough to squeeze in a second as third man runs around to his right. He works a single to hand Butt the strike, and the left-hander needs no invitation to lash a wide half-volley over extra cover for four, even if it is his first delivery. That ensures a solid start for Pakistan with Mortaza failing to find his line and length.
"Pakistan Zindabad!" is screamed from one side of the ground as Kamran Akmal and Salman Butt walk out to open the batting. Mortaza will take the first over.
We'll be underway in just three or four minutes, but remember you can share your thoughts on the match by emailing them to me at tristan.holme@teamtalkmedia.co.za. Anyone else fancy this to be the best chance of an upset, or will Pakistan cruise it?
So all the talk since the first warm-up matches this week has centred around the importance of spinners, but here the focus is seamers: Bangladesh will be chuffed to have the burly Mashrafe Mortaza back after almost a year out, while Pakistan have decided to leave out Mohammad Asif. Of course they're already missing Umar Gul in this tournament, but they've decided to include an extra bits-and-pieces player at Asif's expense for this match. They now bat down to Abdul Razzaq at eight, while Mohammad Aamer at nine can also swing a bat.
Salman Butt, Kamran Akmal¿, Mohammad Hafeez, Shahid Afridi*, Umar Akmal, Fawad Alam, Misbah-ul-Haq, Abdul Razzaq, Mohammad Aamer, Mohammad Sami, Saeed Ajmal.
Tamim Iqbal, Imrul Kayes, Mohammad Ashraful, Shakib Al Hasan*, Mahmudullah, Mushfiqur Rahim¿, Naeem Islam, Suhrawadi Shuvo, Shafiul Islam, Mashrafe Mortaza, Abdur Razzak.
Pakistan have won the toss and elected to bat first.
Hello and welcome to our live coverage of the World Twenty20 Group A match between Bangladesh and Pakistan in St Lucia. We've just seen India cruise to a straightforward win over Afghanistan so no shocks there, but I reckon if there's going to be an upset this weekend then this will be it. Pakistan have had a wretched year both on and off the field and go into this match after a period of inactivity. That said, they are reigning champions so naturally are heavy favourites.