Despite a good start from India with the ball, Pakistan has reached a fighting total on this large Melbourne Cricket Ground.
Despite a good start from India with the ball, Pakistan has reached a fighting total on this large Melbourne Cricket Ground. Pakistan’s tail propelled the total past the 150-run mark. Babar Azam and co would not be upset with the total of 159 after their 20 overs. India won the toss earlier in the day and opted to bowl first.
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It was a dream start for Team India in the much-awaited T20 World Cup clash, Arshdeep Singh shared the new ball with Mohammed Shami and made the ball talk right from the get-go. The left-arm pacer managed to dismiss both Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan early on.
Pakistan was 15-2 after the 4th over and it was the duo of Iftikhar Ahmed and Shan Masood who rescued the men in green from this precarious situation. The pair counter-attacked and put some pressure back on India, together they stitched a brilliant partnership of 76 runs. The balance of this game shifted in the 12th over when Iftikhar smashed Axar Patel for three maximums.
Once Shami dismissed the dangerous-looking Iftikhar Ahmed, it was nothing but a mere collapse that was awaiting. Shan Masood was brilliant in hanging around and steering the innings deep. However, he didn’t get much support from the opposite end.
It was the Pakistan tail who did the damage, late cameos from Shaheen Shah Afridi and Haris Rauf and Shan Masood’s gritty knock steered Pakistan to 159 after 20 overs.
India needed 160 runs to win from 20 overs and this game has all the makings of going down to the wire.
India got off to a poor start losing both their openers early. It was KL Rahul getting chopped on off Naseem Shah and Rohit Sharma incurring an outside edge to Haris Rauf. Suryakumar Yadav looked to counter but got out for 15 runs. India was in all sorts of bother after the end of the Powerplay.
Hardik Pandya and Virat Kohli stuck around and kept the scoreboard ticking. Hardik took against Nawaz in the 12th over, released the pressure and pulled the momentum back towards the Indian side.
India needed 60 runs from the last 30 balls. 12 runs were offered by Naseem Shah and Haris Rauf in the next two overs. Virat Kohli smoked a few sixes, fours and accelerated the innings in some style. Though Hardik chewed up some balls in the end, Virat was on-song. India needed 28 runs from 8 balls and then Kohli smashed two marvellous sixes.
16 were runs needed from 6 balls and what followed in the next three balls was the wicket of Hardik Pandya, a single and a double. With 13 runs needed from 3 balls, Nawaz bowled one over the waist of Virat, who flicked one over the ropes. 6 runs were needed from 3 balls, which went down to 2 runs needed from 2. They lost Dinesh Karthik on the brink on victory. Ravi Ashwin came in and finished things off by lofting the last ball over the mid-off fielder.
What an extraordinary game of cricket it has been. When it comes to the India-Pakistan rivalry, this is what we all expect. These are the moments you remember. Kohli points his finger towards the sky and gets emotional. India is off to a fantastic start in the ICC T20 World Cup.
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