2 mistakes and 1 masterstroke by India in their 2025 Champions Trophy match vs Pakistan ft. Kuldeep Yadav's 10th over

India added another feather to their cap of impressive ODI victories against Pakistan on Sunday, February 23 at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium. The Men in Blue came out on top by six wickets to extend their dominant recent record over their arch-rivals.

With the commanding victory, which took them to four points, India effectively sealed their place in the semifinals. If New Zealand beat Bangladesh tomorrow, Rohit Sharma and Co. will officially qualify for the final four. It seems hard to stop them right now.

At the same time, however, it wasn't a perfect display from Rohit and company. On that note, here are two mistakes and one masterstroke made by India in their Champions Trophy clash against Pakistan.

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#3 Mistake - Harshit Rana wasn't used as an enforcer through the middle

Bangladesh v India - ICC Champions Trophy 2025 - Source: Getty

When Mohammad Rizwan and Saud Shakeel joined forces in the 10th over, few expected them to bat as carefully as they did. The duo took barely any risks against the Indian bowlers, with Rohit keeping Hardik Pandya on from one end post the powerplay.

As Rizwan and Shakeel's partnership picked up pace, the Indian skipper didn't use Harshit Rana as an enforcer through the middle overs. The young fast bowler sent down just two overs in the 11-40 phase, and even they were at a time when the Pakistan duo weren't keen on playing their shots.

Both Rizwan and Shakeel are suspectible against hard lengths and fairly comfortable against spin, but Rohit didn't utilize that weakness. When Rana returned at the death, he was extremely effective with his changes of pace and bouncers.

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#2 Masterstroke - Virat Kohli and Shubman Gill picked the right bowlers and times to attack

Pakistan v India - ICC Champions Trophy 2025 - Source: Getty

It's no secret that Virat Kohli has mastered the art of an ODI chase, and his expertise came to the fore once again on Sunday. In a welcome sign, Shubman Gill exercised much of the same intelligent judgment to help the veteran batter fire the team to a win.

Soon after Rohit was dismissed, Gill ensured that India didn't waste the rest of the powerplay by going after Shaheen Afridi. The opening batter used his feet and played the ball dead straight to collect a few boundaries and take his team well ahead of the required run rate.

Later in the innings, Kohli was calculative against the spinners, milking them for singles and not taking any unnecessary risks. Whenever a pacer was introduced in the attack, the superstar batter made it a point to collect an early boundary and put the bowler under pressure.

The chase was eventually done at a canter, largely because of Kohli's incredible ability to pace the innings and take the right risks at the right times.

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#1 Mistake - Rohit Sharma didn't bowl Kuldeep Yadav's last over

Bangladesh v India - ICC Champions Trophy 2025 - Source: Getty

Kuldeep Yadav returned in the final 10 overs of the Pakistan innings to great effect, picking up three wickets and ensuring that the hosts' target score of 270-280 wasn't reached. Despite that, Rohit didn't bowl the spinner for his final over, instead tossing the ball to Mohammed Shami in the penultimate over.

Shami was picked apart for two sixes by Khushdil Shah and Haris Rauf, with that momentum injection helping Pakistan. Both batters would've certainly found it tougher to score against Kuldeep, who barely put a foot wrong in his final spell of the game.

Luckily for India, though, it didn't cost them.