India beat Pakistan by six wickets.
Same contest, same routines, and the handshake saga continues! IND vs PAK was the second match of the Super 4s, and the tension between the two teams was clearly visible. India skipper Suryakumar Yadav continued his approach of not shaking hands at the toss. The Blues won the toss and put their arch-rivals in to bat. There were two changes to the side, with Jasprit Bumrah and Varun Chakaravarthy both coming back into the mix.
The Men in Green got off to a positive start. For a change, Fakhar Zaman opened the batting alongside Sahibzada Farhan. Saim Ayub, who was Pakistan’s designated opener since quite a few months came in at three. Safe to say, he got off the mark this time. In his fourth match of the tournament, Ayub scored 21 off 17 deliveries with a boundary and a maximum each. The Shaheens seemed to change their batting order a bit, and helped themselves to a competitive total of 171/5.
The Indian openers started in the only way they knew. Both Shubman Gill and Abhishek Sharma went berserk from ball one and never let Pakistan into the game. Both openers had a few words exchanged with their Pakistani counterparts, but continued to score at a quick-rate before Faheem Ashraf sent Gill packing. After both openers were dismissed, India approached the target with caution. Eventually, the Men in Blue registered a six-wicket victory over their arch-rivals.
Right from ball one, Pakistan’s intentions were very clear. They wanted to go the aggressive way, something which they have been trying in the past. After seeing off the first over from Hardik Pandya, the Pakistani openers intended to go after Jasprit Bumrah. What made matters worse for the Indians was their catching. Abhishek Sharma put a catch down of Sahibzada Farhan at third-man in the opening moments of the match.
The right-handed opener made full use of the chance gifted to him by the Indians. He put his foot on the accelerator, and went on to attack the Indian bowling. To add to that, Saim Ayub also coupled with him in the same manner. The two stitched a 72-run stand between them, and continued to exert pressure on the Blues.
This was Farhan’s 4th half-century in 24 innings in the shortest format, and he will gain a lot of confidence from this knock. To add to that, he registered a 50+ score for the first time after more than a month, and that should add some relief to his veins. Apart from Farhan, none of the Pakistani batters could get going. Faheem Ashraf scored a quickfire 20 off just eight deliveries to take Pakistan to 171/5.
The Men in Green were off to a great start, with momentum on their side. As many as three catches went down in the first 10 overs, and the batters were taking full advantage of the faults being made by the Blues. However, after the 10th over mark, Suryakumar Yadav & Co. found a way to crawl back. Pakistan lost Saim Ayub’s wicket in the 11th over of the match, and that is where things started slowing down for the Shaheens.
To add a bit more context, Pakistan were not able to control the middle-overs to the best of their abilities. After a maximum on the third ball of the 10th over, the Indians managed to choke the run-flow. And they did that quite well! The Men in Green were unable to find the boundary for the next 39 deliveries, which is 6.3 overs and that is where India were back into the game. Pakistan were unable to rotate the strike comfortably in the middle overs.
Be it any limited overs game, the middle-overs is where it is controlled. How a team performs in the middle overs gives a platform to launch at the end. However, the Men in Green never got to that stage because of the loss of momentum in the middle-overs. The Indian bowlers would have to be credited for the same.
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The fact that it took the Indian openers just 8.4 overs to get to the 100-run mark speaks a lot about their dominance. Abhishek Sharma and Shubman Gill both started taking the bowling to the cleaners, and did not stop at all. Gill was dismissed by Faheem Ashraf to a delivery which came back in. But Abhishek Sharma continued to rattle the Men in Green with some clean hitting in the IND vs PAK fixture.
Gill scored 47 off just 28 deliveries with a strike-rate of 167.85. But unfortunately, he had to go back after the ball castled onto his stumps from between his bat and pad. Moreover, Pakistan came into the game for a bit when they dismissed Gill and skipper Suryakumar Yadav in quick succession. But other than that, it was all India. After the opening stand, one god partnership was all they wanted, and they did stitch that.
Abhishek Sharma scored 74 runs off just 389 deliveries with six fours and five sixes. Additionally, his strike-rate was the talk of the town. The youngster struck at 189.74, which is massive in the shortest format. It shows that the left-hander is always on the lookout for runs. With him at the top, India can be rest assured of some fiery starts in the times to come.
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