Final Pakistan v Bangladesh ODI today

Captain Shoaib Malik is relishing Pakistan’s chance to notch a record-breaking 11th successive victory in one-day internationals, no matter that nine of its past 10 wins came against world cricket’s weakest opponents.

‘Winning is winning, it’s not in our hands who our opponents are,’ Malik said Friday – a day before Pakistan take on Bangladesh in the fifth and final one-day international in the southern port city of Karachi.

Pakistan’s 18-year-old record of 10 consecutive wins in one-dayers looks likely to fall.

The current winning streak started against India at Jaipur last year before they blanked strugglers Zimbabwe 5-0 in the home series in February and have now recorded four victories in a row against modest Bangladesh.

‘The credit goes to all players and people of Pakistan, who prayed for us,’ Malik said.

Australia cancelled their scheduled March-April tour of Pakistan at short notice on security grounds, prompting the hasty invitation of Bangladesh to fill their place with five 50-over games and a Twenty20 international.

‘It’s better to play some international cricket instead of not playing it at all,’ Malik said.

Bangladesh – currently placed at number 9 in world rankings – went down without a fight in three of the previous four games.

The visitors’ brief spark of competitiveness came at Lahore in the third match when they chased a victory target of 309 runs but finished on 285-7.

‘If we bat first and put up a total something like we posted in third game then we have a chance in the last match,’ Bangladesh coach Jamie Siddons said ahead of today’s final game.

Bangladesh captain Mohammad Ashraful has scores of 9, 22, 4 and 16 in the past four matches and only Sakib al Hassan has scored a century for Bangladesh.

‘He (Ashraful) is hitting the ball well in the nets, in fact better than anybody else and I hope he does bat well tomorrow,’ Siddons said.