India 131 for 3 (Suryakumar 47, Abhishek 31, Tilak 31, Ayub 3-35) beat Pakistan 127 for 9 (Farhan 40, Afridi 33, Kuldeep 3-18, Axar 2-18, Bumrah 2-28) by seven wickets
India extended their dominance over Pakistan to 11-3 in T20Is with a comfortable seven-wicket win in the first of three possible meetings at the Asia Cup. It was one-way traffic right from the time Hardik Pandya removed Saim Ayub with the first legal ball of the match.
India’s superior bowling attack proved too much for Pakistan, who were frequently forced to play low-percentage shots in search of runs. Still, 63 balls went unscored, the scoring rate crossed a run a ball only in the last over of the innings, and 128 was hardly a target for a power-packed India line-up.
Kuldeep Yadav took three wickets, Jasprit Bumrah and Axar Patel two each, and Hardik and Varun Chakravarthy one apiece in a performance with no let-up.
Taking the new ball ahead of Bumrah, Hardik began with a loose delivery, but Ayub hit it straight to Bumrah at backward point. In the next over, Mohammad Haris tried to impose himself on Bumrah and managed only to hole out to Hardik at long leg.
Sahibzada Farhan, though, achieved something no Pakistani had ever done: hitting a six off Bumrah in an international match. He then struck another in the final over of the powerplay, making him only the sixth batter to have hit more than one six off Bumrah in all T20Is. However, 42 for 2 was still only a modest powerplay score, and it proved to be Pakistan’s last moment of joy for a long time.
The trio of Varun, Kuldeep and Axar immediately shut out the scoring after the powerplay. It took Pakistan 31 balls to find their first boundary, during which they managed only 12 runs and lost two wickets. Both dismissals came from desperate strokes, costing Fakhar Zaman and Salman Agha their wickets.
These two fell to slogs, but Kuldeep then began beating defensive shots as well, his wrong’un consigning Mohammad Nawaz to a golden duck and leaving him on a hat-trick.
Pakistan’s struggles were summed up by their most fluent batter, Farhan, who went into the death overs on 40 off 43, only to be dismissed off the first ball of that phase. Shaheen Shah Afridi immediately picked up the mantle with some clean striking, finishing on a personal T20I-best 33 not out off 16 to give Pakistan a glimmer of hope.
That faint hope was extinguished immediately by Abhishek Sharma, who charged at Afridi’s first ball and hit it back over his head for four. He then struck the second for a six over long-off. Shubman Gill followed with successive boundaries off Ayub. Even though Ayub had his revenge with the wickets of both openers, India had already raced to 41 for 2 in 3.4 overs.
India themselves struggled to score freely once their second-best powerplay against Pakistan ended, but the gulf in quality between the sides was still evident. Pakistan’s bowling did not ask as many questions as India’s, and India’s batters were able to keep the scoreboard moving.
The seven overs immediately after the powerplay yielded just 39 runs and the wicket of Tilak Varma, but India remained comfortably placed. All it took was a small final push from Suryakumar Yadav and Shivam Dube to seal the win with 4.1 overs to spare.
(ESPNcricinfo)
