Asia Cup 2018: All-round India crush Pakistan in one-sided encounter

Team India shrug off their painful Tuesday show against Hong Kong to rout arch-rivals Pakistan by eight wickets in Dubai yesterday

What a difference a day can make to a cricket team. And what a turnaround it was by the Indian team who were so listless against Hong Kong a day earlier. The outfit that struggled to get past the minnows, totally outplayed arch-rivals Pakistan in their second game of the Asia Cup here yesterday.

As India and Pakistan had already qualified for the Super Fours after defeating Hong Kong, their Group A match was more for gaining psychological edge for their real battle on Sunday. And it was India who came up trumps a day after surviving a scare against Hong Kong. One did not expect the Indians to come back so strongly especially as they were playing back-to-back matches in intense heat. The inclusion of pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah added a lot of firepower to the bowling attack and that showed in their performance.

They bowled Pakistan out for just 162, which was 12 runs less than what the Hong Kong openers alone had posted against them. Once the bowlers had played their part, the batsmen took over. Required to attain the target at a comfortable 3.26 an over, there was not much pressure on them. Yet, in an India-Pakistan match, one can't be sure till the game is decisively won.

The Indian openers Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan tore into the Pakistan bowling attack and laid the foundation with some scintillating strokeplay to ensure there were no hiccups. By the time they departed, India were well on way to victory, which they achieved with eight wickets and 126 balls to spare. Yesterday's performance has come at the right time for India as they are scheduled to play against Bangladesh on Friday, Pakistan on Sunday and Afghanistan on Tuesday, in their pursuit for a berth in the final. Should they win two of their Super Four games, they will be as good as in for the September 28 final.

It were the bowlers who brought the smiles back in the Indian camp. Bumrah was spot-on from Ball One and in his first two overs he did not concede a run. That put a lot of pressure on the batsmen who took their chances against Bhuvneshwar Kumar and surrendered their wickets. Once Bhuvi got rid of Imam-ul-Haq and Fakhar Zaman cheaply, the Pakistani batsmen were always under pressure. Babar Azam (47) and Shoaib Malik (43) put on 82 runs for the third wicket and that turned out to be the only substantial resistance.

The problem for Pakistan, who opted to bat first, was that they kept losing wickets regularly. And India, despite losing Hardik Pandya's services when he suffered a lower back sprain, still managed to keep up the pressure right though and did not allow Pakistan to stage a recovery. Pakistan suffered badly due to Iman and Zaman, who had scored in the Champions Trophy final against India, playing reckless stokes off Bhuvi and giving away their wickets cheaply.

Pakistan would have been in deeper trouble had Malik not been reprieved twice, once by Dhoni and then by Bhuvi. The way Azam and Malik were going about building the innings, it seemed they had some measure of the bowling. But Kuldeep Yadav castled Azam with a beautiful delivery to provide the much-needed breakthrough. Once Malik was run out soon after, after having lived a charmed existence, the batting lost much of the steam. Wily off-spinner Kedar Jadhav made the most of the pressure created by the other bowlers and picked up three wickets and with Bumrah and Bhuvi cleaning up the tail, the Pakistan innings terminated in the 44th over, leaving India with a comfortable task of clearing the group stage with an all-win record.

Also Read: Asia Cup 2018: Pakistan Captain Sarfraz Ahmed Miffed At India Playing All Matches In Dubai

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