Mohammad Rizwan (79 not out off 55 balls) and Babar Azam (68 not out off 52 balls) displayed wonderful batsmanship to help Pakistan crush India by ten wickets in a Group 2 match in Super 12 stage of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup at the Dubai International Stadium here on Sunday.
Chasing 151, Pakistan got off to an impressive start with 43 runs for no loss in power-play. Rizwan began by carting Bhuvneshwar Kumar for back-to-back boundaries in the opening over. In the next over, Azam started off with a glorious back-foot drive off Mohammed Shami. Shami came under attack in the fifth over as Azam and Rizwan took a four each.
India did tighten the screws by not conceding boundaries in the sixth, seventh and eighth overs. But Azam broke the boundary-less spell with a pull over cow corner off Ravindra Jadeja in the ninth over. From there onwards, Azam and Rizwan played risk-free cricket by rotating the strike and punishing the bad balls by dispatching them to the boundary rope.
It was one-way traffic as India had no answers to clinical batting from Pakistan’s openers, especially with dew coming into the picture. Azam reached his half-century with a gigantic six over deep mid-wicket off Varun Chakravarthy in the 13th over. Two overs later, Rizwan too reached the fifty-mark with a pull through cow corner off Jasprit Bumrah in the 15th over.
Rizwan began the 18th over by hammering Shami for a six over fine leg followed by back-to-back fours through the leg-side. Azam finished off the chase with a brace, ending Pakistan’s hoodoo against India’in men’s T20 World Cups with 13 balls to spare.
Brief Scores: India 151/7 in 20 overs (Virat Kohli 57, Rishabh Pant 39, Shaheen Afridi 3/31, Hasan Ali 2/44) lost to Pakistan 152/0 in 17.5 overs (Mohammad Rizwan 79 not out, Babar Azam 68 not out) by ten wickets.
Source: IANS