IND Vs PAK Match Summary: The highly anticipated game of the year kept the audience on their toes as after losing top 4 batters under 100, Ravindra Jadeja and Hardik Pandya rescued their side and guided them to victory over Pakistan in second match of Asia Cup 2022 at Dubai International Stadium.
Jadeja, who was promoted to no.4 today, played a superb knock of 35 off 29, while Pandya did the final work and remained unbeaten at 33 in just 17 deliveries to hand India a win in their first match of the 15th edition of Asia Cup.
Earlier, Bhuvneshwar and Pandya showed their magic when they picked 7 out of 10 big wickets of the neighbours to bowled them out for 148 in 19.5 overs.
IND Vs PAK Match Summary
Invited to bat, Pakistan faced a dreary start as after somehow managing to face Bhuvneshwar Kumar in the first over, which saw two big shouts. Bhuvi removed the current no.1 T20 batter and Pakistan skipper Babar Azam for 10.
The Indian pacers targeted Pakistan batters with short ball. Just after Bhuvneshwar provided the first wickets, Avesh Khan soon joined the party by removing the dangerous Fakhar Zaman within the powerplay to give India an edge.
Mohammad Rizwan and Iftikhar Ahmed, however, managed to rescue Pakistan from early dismisaals before Bhuvneshwar and Hardik cleaned up the Pakistan tail.
Rizwan 43 scored the most runs for Pakistan, before Shahnawaz Dahani and Haris Rauf took their side to a decent total.
The seasoned Bhuvneshwar Kumar bagged the most number for India (4), with Hardik Pandya not behind and grabbed 3. The young left-arm pacer Arshdeep SInghwas successful in removing 2 Pakistani batter, while Avesh Khan also took a wicket.
Chasing a target of 148, India too witnessed a huge blow when the young Naseem Shah dismissed Vice-captain KL Rahul on duck.
The current Indian captain Rohit Sharma and the ex-skipper Virat Kohli did manage to rescue team from early dismissal, and was everything was looking smooth for the men in blue, Mohammad Nawaz removed Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli off consecutive deliveries to help Pakistan back in game.
The same incident happened when Ravindra Jadeja and Suryakumar Yadav added 36 for the 4th fourth, and the debutant removed India’s highest ranked batter in T20Is Suryakumar and put India on back foot.
Hardik Pandya then joined Jadeja and soaked the pressure from his team. Both Jadeja and Pandya kept their cool in the high-voltage game and took their side to almost the finish line before Jadeja got out after scoring a modest 35 runs knock.
Dinesh Karthik took a single on his first ball to give Pandya the strike, and the meticulous all-rounder finished the game with a six.
IND Vs PAK: Who won the Man of the Match award?
Hardik was later honoured with the player of the match award for his brilliant all-round performance. With bowl he took 3 big wickets by giving just 25 runs in 4 overs, while he smashed an unbeaten 33 off 17 with bat and finished the match in former finisher of India MS Dhoni’s style.
