Hardik (3/25 in 4 overs) showed his high value under extreme pressure as his well directed short deliveries helped India bowl out Pakistan for 147. It should have been a straight forward chase, but India’s veteran top-three faltered, putting on extra pressure. middle order. Hardik (33 not out on 17) and Ravindra Jadeja (35 off 29) put on a 52-run partnership to take India to the pinnacle of a famous victory.
The star all-rounder’s three fours off Haris Rauf in the 19th over effectively sealed the game for India. With the team needing 6 runs in three balls, Hardik ended the game with a six off left-arm spinner Mohammad Nawaz. The focus was on India’s top three going into the tournament and all three – KL Rahul (0), Rohit Sharma (12 off 18) and Virat Kohli (35 off 34) didn’t have the best of times in the middle.
Rahul was dismissed on the first ball with a tentative off body stroke off Naseem Shah, which saw him play on his stumps. Virat, who hit some confident pull shots in his innings, was dismissed in the first over. He also played and missed a few times and got lucky when a wrong pull went all the way for six. With luck running out, it looked like Kohli would finally get a much-awaited big but he was caught at long off by Nawaz.
In his last over, Rohit was similarly dismissed as he attempted to clear the long off fielder. The Pakistani pacers, led by Naseem, troubled the Indian batsmen with extra pace and the spinners kept it tight, scoring 86 runs in the last 10 overs, a daunting task. When Shah returned to rattle Suryakumar Yadav’s stumps, India were reduced to 89 for four, riding on the visiting batsmen Hardik and Jadeja.
The equation was brought down to 32 off 18 balls, with Pakistan being forced to bring an extra fielder inside the circle due to an over-rate penalty. Pakistan’s fast bowlers, especially Shah, who were suffering from cramps, made the task of the Indians a little easier.
Earlier, Rohit Sharma decided to chase after winning the toss and the bowlers led by Hardik set up the game well for India. Bhuvneshwar Kumar (4/26) was at his skilful best and his four wickets included the prized skull of Babar Azam (10). However, Hardik’s envious figures of 3 for 25 in four overs during the middle leg destroyed the Pakistani batting.
Young seamer Arshdeep Singh also returned good figures of 2 for 33 in his first appearance in the Indo-Pak match as all 10 wickets were snatched away by Speed Merchant, a first for India in the shortest edition. The first over of the game bowled by Bhuvneshwar was crucial as it involved two DRS calls in favor of Mohammad Rizwan (43 off 42) and a straight drive from Babar. There was not much movement for both Bhuvneshwar and Arshdeep Singh as they managed to keep things tight in their opening spell of two overs.
Babar dismissed Arshdeep straight in the second over, who has been showing great performance in the last 12 months. However, Bhuvneshwar surprised the Pakistani captain with a bouncer in his second over and he went to short fine leg only to pull Arshdeep over the top edge. India went with Avesh Khan as the third pace substitute and he smashed a six and a boundary towards the midwicket region by Rizwan in his opening over.
His fifth ball of the over was faced by left-armer Fakhar Zaman, who decided to walk short and wide to wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik, who was picked ahead of Rishabh Pant for the big game. With much noise from the crowd, the Indians did not listen to the edge, but Zaman decided to walk, leaving Pakistan at 43 for two in six overs. After this, Rizwan gave some momentum to the innings by sharing a 45-run partnership with Iftikhar Ahmed (28 off 22) for the third wicket.
However, Hardik changed the course of the game with well-directed short deliveries removing Iftikhar and Rizwan—the former passed it to Karthik and the latter, not sure what he was doing, third man was given a regulation catch. , Soon after, Hardik removed Khushdil Shah with another short ball to bowl Pakistan out for 97 for five in the 15th over. Number 11 Shahnawaz Dahani hit two big sixes in the death overs to take Pakistan close to 150.
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