India Wins Hardik Pandya caps it off with a superb six over long-on.
India wins Hardik Pandya caps it off with a superb six over long-on. This man is so confident about his shots! It was fired in by Nawaz but Hardik slammed the ball over the boundary ropes as if it is a daily affair for him
Rohit Sharma’s Team India will begin their title defence in Asia Cup 2022 with a much-anticipated India vs Pakistan clash in Dubai on Sunday (August 28).
Emotions will be running high for both sides this time. India will be looking forward to starting their title defence with a bang and avenging their loss during the last meeting at ICC T20 World Cup 2021 against Babar Azam-led Pakistan.
On the other hand, Pakistan will be aiming to down Team India again and carry on with the momentum they have had over India since their last outing. Historically in T20Is, India has an overall edge over Pakistan.
Ever since their first T20I meeting at ICC T20 World Cup 2007, both sides have clashed nine times in the shortest format of the game.
India has won seven of these games while Pakistan has only won two matches. But the last time these two met was during the ICC T20 World Cup 2021 back in October 2021, Team India had a rare slip-up against their arch-rivals.
Left-arm pacer Shaheen Afridi destroyed the Indian top order with two quick strikes. Contributions from then-skipper Virat Kohli (57) and Rishabh Pant (39) took India to 151/7 in their 20 overs but knocks from Mohammed Rizwan (79 not out) and Pakistani skipper Babar Azam (68 not out) meant that Men in Blue succumbed to a shocking ten-wicket defeat.
Hardik Pandya batted and bowled India to a memorable win in a treat of an India-Pakistan match. The two proud teams have not quite played a close match for a few years and so fans got a vintage India-Pakistan contest with a pitch that suited the brilliant fast bowlers in both teams.
Hardik Pandya was the standout bowler, along with Bhuvneshwar Kumar, and batter for India, first taking figures of 3/25 and then scoring an unbeaten 33 off 17 balls. He won the match with a six off the fourth ball of the last over.
A memorable match and India fans can go to bed with good thoughts. Pakistan fans will be disappointed but hey, they made a match out of a target of 148 and just the sight of young Naseem Shah limping and hobbling in his last over and still bowling three back-to-back dot balls to Hardik Pandya, almost getting his wicket off the last of those, while grinding his teeth and fighting against the extreme pain of cramps should make them proud.
It has been a lovely contest and let’s hope the rest of the India-Pakistan matches live up to this. Well, let’s hope all the matches live up to this, of course, the Asia Cup gives so much importance to every single match after all, doesn’t it? Of course, it does. On that note, we will join you tomorrow when Afghanistan face Bangladesh in Dubai. Ciao!
Halfway through the chase, we still knew that we can win irrespective of the situation. We had the belief, and these things can happen when you have that belief. It’s about giving clarity to the guys so that they know their roles well.
It was a bit challenging but I’ll take wins like this any day over usual victories. Yes, they (India’s pace bowling) have come a long way in the last year or so and they have adapted well to different situations. Since the time he (Hardik) made his comeback, he’s been brilliant.
When he was not part of the team, he figured out what he needs to do to his body and his fitness regime, and now he is clocking 140+ easily. His batting quality we all know and it’s been brilliant since his comeback. He is a lot calmer now and more confident about what he wants to do, whether it’s with the bat or with the ball. He can bowl quickly, we saw that today with those short balls.
It was always about just understanding his game and he’s doing that well now. In a high pressure with 10 rpo needed, you can panic but he never showed any of that.
This is the one you have been waiting for. This is the one everyone has been waiting for, including those organising the Asia Cup, which is why the buildup to this entire tournament has been almost like a buildup to an India-Pakistan series.
It is also possibly the first of at least two India-Pakistan matches we will see in this tournament, considering the third team in this group are minnows in Hong Kong. It will be global cricket news, and probably even more than that if Hong Kong pips India or Pakistan to the Super Four stage.
Anyhow, we had a pretty entertaining match to start with yesterday, with Afghanistan utterly annihilating Sri Lanka in an efficient, systematic manner. Let’s hope we will not just have individual performances to remember today and instead talk about a great match at the end of it all. It has been a while since we saw a close encounter between these two proud cricketing nations.
