Asia Cup 2018, India vs Pakistan: 3 reasons why Pakistan lost

The 5th match of Asia Cup 2018 was the high-profile clash between India and Pakistan, which is known as Asia's biggest rivalry. India lost the toss and Pakistan chose to bat first.

India had a great day with the ball as they bowled out Pakistan for just 162 in 43.1 overs. Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Kedar Jadhav were among the key performers for India as they picked up three wickets each.

The Indian batsmen on their part put up an impressive performance as they chased the total in 29 overs, winning the match by eight wickets.

Let us have a look at three big reasons why Pakistan lost the encounter.

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#1 Complete and clinical bowling performance from India

India are fortunate to have the wrist spin of Kuldeep and Chahal, the pace of Bumrah, the swing of Bhuvneshwar and the off-spin of Kedar Jadhav in their bowling attack. All of them were impressive today.

Part-timer Kedar Jadhav picked up the vital wickets of Sarfraz Ahmed, Asif Ali and Shadab Khan. Bhuvi meanwhile was able to dismiss the openers Imam-ul-Haq and Fakhar Zaman, as well as Hasan Ali, thus winning the Man of the Match award.

Bumrah dismissed the destructive Faheem Ashraf and Usman Khan, while Kuldeep was successful in getting rid of the solid Babar Azam.

#2 Pakistan's batting collapse

Pakistan committed the crime of not playing out their full quota of overs. Their batting was thoroughly unconvincing, and the score of 162 that they put up on the board was far from ideal.

The openers set the tone with their failures; Fakhar Zaman was dismissed for a 9-ball duck, while Imam-ul-Haq scored 2 off 7 balls. Azam and Malik scored 47 and 43 runs respectively, but they failed to convert their starts into a big one.

The skipper Sarfraz had a forgettable outing as he scored just 6 runs. Asif Ali also struggled with the bat today as he scored 9 runs off 10 balls.

It was a poor performance from the Pakistani batsmen, and the way they collapsed after being 85 for 2 at one stage would not have gone down well with the management.

#3 Great batting by India

India had a great day with the bat to say the least. An opening partnership of 86 between Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan was the match-winning moment of the game.

Rohit scored 52 off 39 balls before being dismissed by Shadab. Dhawan scored 46 and was finally caught by Babar Azam off Ashraf's bowling.

Ambati Rayudu and Dinesh Karthik then took the team home with some composed batting. A partnership of 60 between them helped the team chase the target of 163 with ease, and win the match by eight wickets.