DUBAI, Wednesday – India showed they had recovered from the jitters they received from minnows Hong Kong less than 24 hours before to come out with all guns blazing to outplay arch rivals Pakistan by eight wickets in their high profile match of the Asia Cup played at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Wednesday.
It was a clinical performance by the Indians who escaped with a 26-run win over Hong Kong on Tuesday. But yesterday they were more of the side a lot of people who are associated with Indian cricket have come to be familiar with.
They first dismissed Pakistan for 162 in 43.1 overs and then knocked off the runs in style using up only 29 overs.
Pakistan’s total didn’t represent much of a challenge to India. An opening stand of 86 off 79 balls between skipper Rohith Sharma who dominated the partnership with a fluent 52 off 39 balls (6 fours, 3 sixes) and Shikhar Dhawan (46) set India on their way to victory that saw them top Group A with two wins out of two. Pakistan finished second with one win and one loss.
India tied down the free-scoring Pakistani batsmen from the very first over of the innings after Sarfraz Ahmed had won the toss and chose to bat first.
The tight lines adopted by the Indian quicks forced rash shots from the two openers Imam-ul-Haq and Fakhar Zaman. Imam charged down the track to Bhuvneshvar Kumar and only succeeded in edging a catch to Dhoni with his score on 2 and Fakhar top edged a pull off the same bowler to mid wicket without a run against his name.
After Kumar had removed both openers in his first spell, the Indian spinners came into play to strangle the Pakistani middle order. They built pressure on the batsmen to such an extent that accounted for Shoaib Malik being run out for 43 off a direct hit from Rayudu at cover.
Malik and Babar Azam had rebuilt the Pakistan innings after they had lost the first two wickets for three runs by putting together a partnership of 82. Just as when the stand was looking to blossom into one of threatening proportions leg-spinner Kuldeep Yadav broke through with a peach of a delivery to bowl Babar all ends up with a wrong ‘un which the batsmen failed to read and was dismissed for 47.
That breakthrough opened the gates for India as Pakistan from a promising position of 85-2 collapsed to 121-7 with off-spinner Kedar Jadhav also joining the party by picking up the wickets of Sarfraz Ahmed (6) and Asif Ali (9) and Shadab Khan (8) cheaply.
India’s fielding was not upto the mark spilling three easy catches two off Malik at 26 (Dhoni) and 37 (Kumar) and one a return catch given by Faheem (13) by Chahal, but they made up for the lapse with some heady bowling to rip the heart out of the Pakistani batting.
India lost all-rounder Hardik Pandya in the 18th over when he was forced to leave the field while bowling his fifth over.
He was taken off on stretcher and it was later reported that was suffering from acute lower back injury. Substitute fielder Manesh Pandey didn’t have to wait long to make his presence felt on the field when he pulled of a splendid running catch along the mid wicket boundary to send back Sarfraz Ahmed for six.
Likewise Pakistan lost spinner Shadab Khan midway in his second over having hurt his back. The over was completed by Fakhar Zaman.
India and Pakistan have not met since the ICC Champions Trophy final last year and their rivalry has been intense. But for the politics the two great Asian nations are not likely to meet in a bilateral series other than in a tournament of this nature – the Asia Cup or the ICC World Cup, World T20 and Champions Trophy.
The Asia Cup might produce perhaps a rare opportunity of India and Pakistan meeting each other on three occasions provided they reach the final. They are assured of meeting each other twice with both teams having defeated Hong Kong and having qualified for the Super Four from Group A with Bangladesh and Afghanistan coming through from Group B. Sri Lanka and Hong Kong are the two ousted teams from the tournament after the first round group stage.
Add new comment