India defeated Pakistan by 7 wickets in today’s Asia Cup clash. Pakistan, batting first, managed only 127/9 in 20 overs, with Sahibzada Farhan and Shaheen Afridi providing the only spark. None of the top or middle-order batters looked settled, as India’s bowlers — especially Kuldeep Yadav and Axar Patel — kept the scoring in check and picked up wickets at regular intervals. Chasing 128, India got off to a flying start with Abhishek Sharma’s 31 off 13 balls, before captain Suryakumar Yadav anchored the innings with 41 off 35. Despite Saim Ayub’s three wickets for Pakistan, India cruised to the target inside 16 overs, sealing a comfortable win and exposing Pakistan’s batting frailties once again.
In the match, only Farhan’s two sixes off Bumrah and Shaheen’s brave resistance stand out… The expectation was that either India would win the toss and put Pakistan to bat, or Pakistan would choose to bat first after winning the toss. Batting is our weak link, and it got exposed right away…
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If you gift away wickets in the powerplay, it becomes very difficult to play the spinners, and the rest was ruined by poor technique. All the batsmen threw their wickets away with bad shots… not a single one got out to an unplayable delivery. Everyone batted against the nature of the pitch. Salman Agha, despite being a Test batsman, struggled against spin. Hasan Nawaz, Haris, and Salman Agha — all three got out after surviving at least two chances each. For quite a few matches now, the top order has been failing, and the lower order has been coming in to save some respect with runs. Even today, it was the lower order that saved face by taking the score past 100. If the tailenders could push it to 127 after such a collapse, then with slightly better batting, scoring 160+ shouldn’t have been difficult…
On these pitches, you need a method to bat — you set targets according to the surface. But instead of timing the ball, they kept trying to smash it. By playing dot balls, they built pressure on themselves. This match was always going to be decided by which team batted better in the powerplay and overall. The fear was that if Pakistan didn’t get to a fighting total, the match would be over in the first innings itself. The bowlers won’t get many chances here — but even at this target, we could only pray for a miracle…
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