Against the backdrop of protests for the Indian cricket team to boycott this match against Pakistan in Dubai, cricket’s most volatile rivalry saw another distinctly blue-tinged result on Sunday.
Suryakumar Yadav’s team smashed Pakistan by seven wickets to stay atop Group A of the Asia Cup, and thus make it 15 wins from their past 18 T20I games versus the arch-rivals. It was a rather insipid performance from Pakistan, who chose to bat and then could only manage 127/9 from their 20 overs which India chased comfortably to stay ahead of their opponents, UAE and Oman.
The win for India was slowed down by three wickets to Saim Ayub and four overs from Abrar Ahmed that cost just 16 runs, underlining how tough batting was on a sluggish pitch against the spinners.
Which is where Kuldeep Yadav and Axar Patel combining for five wickets for 36 runs in eight overs proved instrumental, and Suryakumar’s cool unbeaten 47 was the defining innings of the contest. Kuldeep, the Player of the Match, backed his 4/7 against UAE with 3/18.
Ayub bagged a second consecutive golden duck in a row when he spooned the first legal delivery of the match to point, and the score was 6/2 when Mohammad Haris mistimed a shot of Jasprit Bumrah to deep backward square leg. Sahibzada Farhan and Fakhar Zaman hit a few shots but each time you thought something was forming, India took a wicket.
Farhan’s 40 off 44 deliveries proved the only resistance on a tacky surface, on which Pakistan skipper Salman Agha made 3 off 12 balls. Kuldeep found himself on a hat-trick with the wickets of Hasan Nawaz and Mohammad Nawaz, while Axar duped Fakhar and Aga in a spell of 2/18 from his four overs.
Shaheen Shah Afridi got the score past 100 with a 16-ball 33 that saw the tailender strike four sixes, but it was a minor irritant for India in the overall picture.
Abhishek Sharma was seemingly aware of the challenge of scoring against spin outside the Powerplay block, and so he wasted no time in wading into Afridi. The first two balls of the chase went for four and six, before Abhishek took repeated the dose to Afridi in his second over.
Abhishek’s 31 from 13 balls gave India a strong start, despite the wicket of Shubman Gill who was stumped on 10 when trying to drive Ayub’s spin over mid-off. Suryakumar and Tilak Varma bedded down to add 56 as Ayub and Abrar kept a check on the scoring, but a target of 128 was never going to seriously test India.
Tilak made a run-a-ball 31 before he fell to Ayub as well, bowled by a terrific ball that hit off stump, but Shivam Dube struck a 90-meter six to hurry the result. Suryakumar survived a couple close lbw shouts to anchor the chase with 47 not out off 37 balls, finishing the match with 25 balls to spare with a six over mid-on.
Pakistan coach Mike Hesson called Mohammad Nawaz the best spinner in the game before this match, but the left-armer concede 27 in his three wicketless overs. In contract, Abrar was exceptional in his four overs which went for just 16 runs, and the part-timer Ayub netted all three wickets to fall.
