India won the match.
Sports Desk, New Delhi. Sri Lanka's Colombo became Indian on Sunday. Wherever you looked, from Premadasa Stadium to roads and hotels, only Indian fans were visible. Under the blue sky of Colombo, Indian fans in blue jersey had come to encourage their team. The Indian team, captained by Suryakumar Yadav, also lived up to the expectations of the fans and once again defeated Pakistan in a thrilling match. Pakistan team had prepared Abhishek Sharma, but Ishan Kishan came out of syllabus.
The Pakistani team, once known for its fast bowling, kept the Indian batsmen at bay by using six spinners on the tricky pitch of Premadasa Stadium. Ishan Kishan alone faced him brilliantly and played a stormy innings. He scored the fourth half-century of his career and helped India reach 175 runs. After this, the Indian bowlers did wonders and won the match by 61 runs by bowling out Pakistan for 114 runs in 18 overs. This is India's third consecutive victory.
Salman Aga won the toss
Pakistani captain Salman Aga won the toss and decided to bowl first. Apart from them, five spinners Sam Ayub, Abrar Ahmed, Shadab Khan, Mohammad Nawaz and Usman Tariq did not allow Abhishek Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Verma and Hardik Pandya to move till the 17th over. Only Ishan Kishan (77) looked dominant over the Pakistani spinners.
He made excellent use of sweep and reverse sweep to rescue India from the shock of Abhishek Sharma (0) with three sixes and 10 fours. Fast bowler Shaheen Afridi bowled only two overs for Pakistan. The remaining 18 overs were bowled by the spinners. Agha's first move was good but the last move was a bit bad as India scored 16 runs in it.
Great move by Agha
In a brilliant move, Pakistani captain Agha bowled the first over himself in place of fast bowler Afridi. His spin trick was successful and the biggest hope of the Indian team, Abhishek was caught out. Aga wanted Abhishek to take a shot and he fell into the net. His scores in the last six T20s have been 00, 68 not out, 00, 30, 00, 00. After taking the wicket of Abhishek, Agha even signaled to his teammates to see what he said.
welcomed with a six
However, in the very next over, Ishaan welcomed Shaheen with a six. India scored 15 runs in this over. Shaheen gave 31 runs in two overs. Salman replaced Shaheen with spinner Sam Ayub in the fourth over. Spinners from both sides were bowling the ball in the powerplay itself. Pakistan handed the ball to the third spinner Abrar in the fifth over itself.
However, Kishan also welcomed him with a six. Five out of six overs of the powerplay were bowled by the spinners. This is rarely seen. India scored 52 runs at the loss of one wicket in six overs, of which Kishan scored 42 runs. This is the most runs scored by a batsman in the powerplay in an India-Pakistan match. Earlier, in the Asia Cup in Dubai last year, Shubman Gill had scored 35 runs in the powerplay.
Ishaan completed his fourth half-century in 27 balls in the seventh over. Due to a leg strain, he had to spend some time with the physio but he turned and hit a four on Sam's ball. However, he was bowled on the next ball. This innings of Ishaan will be remembered for a long time on such a pitch where the ball was gripping and coming to a stop. India's run rate slowed down after Ishan's dismissal.
Usman Tariq, who bowled side arm, stopped in the 11th over and in front of him was the same Suryakumar Yadav who was giving practice to Abhishek and Ishaan in their bowling action in the practice session a day earlier. Surya waited and hit a four into the midwicket gap. Pakistan gave its first extra run in the form of a wide in the 13th over. This shows how prepared they had come. Before this only one leg bye had come.
When Ishaan was out, India had scored 88 runs in 8.4 overs. After this, Surya and Tilak added only 48 runs in the next 34 balls. Indian spectators were happy when Tilak was LBW off Sam Ayub in the 15th over as he had scored only 25 runs in 24 balls. However, the Indian team suffered a huge blow after Hardik (0) was caught out on the very next ball. After this, Shivam (27) and Surya (32) took the score beyond 170. Rinku Singh remained unbeaten after scoring 11 runs on 4 balls. Sam Ayub took 3 wickets for Pakistan
Abhishek was out on zero for the fourth time in the last 6 matches. He is the third batsman from a full-time member nation to be out for ducks in his two opening matches of the World Cup. Imrul Kayes and Ashish Nehra have also done this. Kayes and Nehra have not scored a single run in the World Cup. 3 matches have been played on this ground before in this World Cup. The team batting first wins all three matches. In this the average of the first innings was 171. Before this tournament, all the eight T-20 matches held at this ground were won by the team chasing the target. The first innings average in those matches was 127. Since 2014 till now (before this match), India-Pak have clashed in 11 T20 matches, in which the team chasing the target has won 10 times. Only in the 2024 World Cup in New York did India win while playing first. 06 Pakistani spinners bowled in this innings. This was the first time any team did this in the World Cup. Only two full-time member countries have done this in T20 International.
Most overs bowled by a spinner in a T20 innings
India made the biggest score
India made the highest score (175) against Pakistan in T20 World Cup history. In such a situation, Pakistan needed a fast start. Hardik Pandya gave a blow to Pakistan team in the first over to chase 176 runs. Sahibzada Farhan was caught out on the fourth ball of the first over. His innings ended in the hands of Rinku Singh. Sahibzada Farhan faced 4 balls and his account was not even opened.
In the second over, Jasprit Bumrah further strengthened India's grip on the match. Indian fast bowler Bumrah took 2 wickets in his second over on a pitch useful for spinners. Bumrah gave out LBW to Sam Ayub (6) on the second ball. Bumrah sent back Pakistani captain Salman Aga on the last ball of the over. Agha faced 4 balls and scored 4 runs.
Even after the continuous fall of wickets, Pakistan's batsmen were busy hitting laps. He was not looking towards partnership at all. Wicketkeeper Usman Khan and former captain Babar Azam added 21 runs for the fourth wicket. Then Akshar Patel bowled Babar (5). After 6 overs, Pakistan's score was 38 runs at the loss of 4 wickets. This is the second time in the T20 World Cup that Pakistan has lost 4 wickets in the powerplay. Earlier in 2014, the score was 13/4 against West Indies in Mirpur.
After this, Usman Khan and Shadab Khan brought Pakistan back into the match. After 10 overs the team's score was 71/4. In the 11th over, Indian vice-captain Akshar Patel broke the 39-run partnership between Usman and Shadab. Usman, who was moving towards his half-century, moved forward and tried to cut. Behind the wicket, Ishan Kishan did not make any mistake and uprooted the stumps. Pakistan's wicketkeeper batsman played an inning of 44 runs in 34 balls.
Mohammad Nawaz, who landed at number 7, became the victim of Kuldeep by hitting a four. Seeing India's grip on the match becoming stronger, the Indian captain tried his part-timer. He handed over the 13th over to Tilak Verma. Shadab Khan (14) went for a big shot on the very first ball and was caught by Shivam Dubey. Varun Chakraborty gave two blows to Pakistan, which was on the verge of defeat.
On the third ball of the 16th over, he sent Faheem Ashraf (10) and on the fourth ball, Abrar Ahmed (0) to the dugout. However, he missed the hat-trick. When Rinku Singh took the catch of Faheem, Abrar was out LBW.
In the end Usman Tariq was bowled by Hardik Pandya. For India, Hardik Pandya, Jasprit Bumrah, Axar Patel and Varun Chakraborty took 2 wickets each. Kuldeep Yadav and Tilak Verma got 1-1 wicket.
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