In the second match of the Asia Cup T20 Super Four stage, India defeated Pakistan by 6 wickets.
In the match played at the Dubai International Stadium, India won the toss against Pakistan and chose to field first.
Pakistan set India a target of 172 runs, which India successfully chased down in the 19th over, losing 4 wickets.
Batting first, Pakistan scored 171 runs for the loss of 5 wickets in the allotted 20 overs.
The first Pakistani player to get out was Fakhar Zaman, who scored 15 runs before being dismissed at the team total of 21. His wicket was taken by Hardik Pandya. Fakhar’s dismissal sparked debate on social media, with users calling the decision controversial.
After Fakhar’s dismissal, Sahibzada Farhan and Saim Ayub played responsibly and took the team’s score to 93 runs. At that point, Saim Ayub was caught out off Dube’s bowling after scoring 21 runs.
The third player to be dismissed was Hussain Talat, who scored 10 runs before being dismissed by Kuldeep Yadav at the team total of 110. Shortly after, Sahibzada Farhan was also caught out off Dube’s bowling for 58 runs when the score was 115. Farhan played an innings of 58 runs off 45 balls, hitting 3 sixes and 5 fours.
Mohammad Nawaz was dismissed for 21 runs when the total was 149. Captain Salman Agha remained unbeaten on 17, while Faheem Ashraf scored 20 not out off 8 balls.
India chased down the target comfortably with 4 wickets down. The first Indian player to fall was Shubman Gill, who scored 47 runs before being bowled by Faheem Ashraf. Indian captain Suryakumar was dismissed for a duck by Haris Rauf.
At a total of 123, Abhishek Sharma was dismissed by Abrar. He played a brilliant innings of 74 runs off 39 balls, including 5 sixes. Sanju Samson was bowled by Haris for 13 runs, while Tilak Varma (30) and Hardik Pandya (7) remained not out.
For Pakistan, Haris Rauf took 2 wickets, while Faheem Ashraf and Abrar Ahmed claimed one wicket each.
Pakistan made 2 changes in today’s match, including Faheem Ashraf and Hussain Talat in the playing XI.
The Pakistan squad consisted of Saim Ayub, Sahibzada Farhan, Fakhar Zaman, Hussain Talat, Faheem Ashraf, Salman Ali Agha, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Haris (wicketkeeper), Shaheen Shah Afridi, Haris Rauf, and Abrar Ahmed.
India also made two changes, with Jasprit Bumrah and Varun Chakravarthy returning to the side.
Due to the handshake controversy and Indian captain Suryakumar Yadav’s political statement after the match, tensions between the two countries have worsened. Today again, the captains of both teams did not shake hands after the toss.
It is worth mentioning that in the group stage match as well, India defeated Pakistan by 7 wickets.