Asia Cup 2018: India thrash Pakistan by eight wickets

On a pitch that looked a belter for the batsmen, Pakistan won the toss and opted to bat first. Imam-ul-Haq walked into the ground alongside the destructor-in-chief of the last Indo-Pak encounter, Fakhar Zaman.

Bhuvaneshwar Kumar (3-15) who looked rusty against Hong Kong last night, was on song and removed both the openers in successive overs leaving Pakistan two down for three runs. The experienced Shoaib Malik (43) stitched an 82-run partnership with Babar Azam (47) for the third wicket until Kuldeep Yadav bamboozled the latter in the 22nd over.

After that, the floodgates had opened and it was all a downward slope for Pakistan. The inclusion of Kedar Jadhav over KL Rahul did raise eyebrows initially, but the selection worked wonders for India. He ran through the middle-order and ended with match figures of 3-23 including the wicket of Pakistan’s skipper, Sarfaraz Ahmed.

Faheem Ashraf (21) and Mohammad Amir(18*) held fort for a while, but Pakistan was already undone by their senior batters. India, without much delay cleaned the tail in the 44th over and needed a target of 163 to heal the wounds of the Champions Trophy last year.

The equation at the innings break was quite simple. For India to win, India had to bat out the full quota, and for Pakistan, it was all about picking up the 10 Indian wickets. Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma started on a cautious note until Rohit unleashed the beast in the 8th over and took Usman Khan for 19 runs including two sixes.

With a princely drive over mid-off, Rohit Sharma brought up his 35th ODI half-century off 36 balls – surpassing his previous fastest ODI half-century off 42 balls. The Indian openers scored runs freely until Pakistan’s lone frontline spinner, Shadab Khan, broke the 86-run opening stand. It was in his first delivery when he sneaked through Rohit’s bat and pad and castled him for 52(39).

Centurion from the previous game, Dhawan (46) continued from where Rohit left – only to hit a ball outside the off-stump straight to point. By the time Pakistan had the Indian openers back in the hut, the damage had already been done. Ambati Rayudu (31*) united with Dinesh Karthik (31*) and remained unbeaten to hand India an eight-wicket victory over Pakistan.

Both the teams qualify into the next round with India topping the group and are scheduled to meet again on 23rd September in a Super Four clash at the same ground.