152/0 (17.5)
CRR : 8.52
151/7 (20.0)
CRR : 7.55
Pakistan won by 10 wickets
Player of the Match
Player
3/31
17.2
4
M Shami to M Rizwan
SIX AND A FOUR NOW. Rizwan spanks Shami here and that sums up India's day. Right in the slot outside off stump. Rizwan shuffles across his stumps and pounds it past mid wicket for a boundary.
17.3
4
M Shami to M Rizwan
AND PULLS SHAMI NOW FOR A BOUNDARY. He has played that shot like a zillionth time to Shami. He digs it short into the track outside off, the ball does bounce and Rizwan hops up for the task and pulls it down to deep square leg for another boundary.
17.4
1
M Shami to M Rizwan
Nails a full ball outside off, which Shami should have bowled from ball one. Alas he didn't!!! Rizwan sits back and knocks the ball down the ground towards long on for one.
17.5
2
M Shami to B Azam
Will they come back for the second? They won't!!! Would they?? Yes, they does. Babar Azam whips off the full ball and collects a brace runs off the deep mid wicket area. Pakistan have registered a famous win here. It won't be six-nil for India. Babar and Rizwan have been able to notch a remarkable victory. History here at Dubai! Pakistan have beaten India for the first time in World Cup history.
PAK won by 10 wickets
DG: And that’s the end of the game and Pakistan literally made a mockery of this stiff total. Before the start of this game, it was 5-0 in India’s favour. Well, just add 5-1 now as for the first time, Pakistan have defeated India in a T20 World Cup match. A comfortable 10-wicket win and Pakistan have made a solid statement here. That was an easy peasy run-chase in my language and it was brilliantly executed by two of the finest T20 batters in the world- Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan.
Chasing a tricky total of 152, Pakistan got off to a flier and they never looked back. It was almost as if every Indian bowler had an off-day, the two Pakistani openers capitalised on it. Ever since Rizwan has been promoted to the opening slot, he has looked a completely different batter and he proved it once again with his silky smooth shot selections. Babar Azam also joined the party and there was no stopping for the duo.
Our unwanted guest, 'Dew' came calling and that didn’t help the Indian spinners as they found it difficult to grip the ball. So much fuss around Varun Chakravarthy’s mystery and he was demystified today and was taken to the cleaners.
Once the nerves were settled down, both Babar and Rizwan showcased their skills and made it a one-sided affair. Both the classy batters notched up their respective fifties and stitched an unbeaten 152-run stand for the opening wicket to take the game away from the Indian camp.
In the end, some erratic bowling and some magnificent batting helped Pakistan to win their first-ever T20 World Cup game against their arch-rivals.
Shaheen Shah Afridi | Player of the Match: "A brilliant game for us and everyone played well. The blessings of our family members was with us and we made everyone proud today. This is the first time we have beaten India and I am proud of this. I wanted to get the early breakthroughs and the aim was to swing the ball early on in the innings. All teams are strong in this World Cup and we'll try and make it to the final."
Virat Kohli: "We were outplayed by Pakistan! They started brilliantly with the ball, and 3 wickets for 20 runs was not a good start. We needed wickets early but with the bat they gave us absolutely no chances. The pitch played slow. With dew, it was little bit better. When you know the conditions might change in the batsmen's favour, you need some extra runs but Pakistan bowled brilliantly and didn't give that. With due coming in, the slower bowlers were not effective either. It is important to stay composed. There will definitely be chat around what we need to do in the next game but there is enough time."
Babar Azam: "Thanks to Almighty. A great effort by the boys, credit goes to the bowlers. Shaheen started off well, spinners kept the pressure on and we did a tremendous work at death. Rizwan and I made sure to take it deep and after the first ten overs, dew made things easy for us. This is just the start, we needed to get our confidence right. We prepared well, and just kept the history out of our mind. We needed quality practice and warm-up matches, and those games gave us a lot of confidence."
That's all for the coverage of this high-octane game. A deserving victory for Pakistan and India have a lot of questions to answer now. Another cracking game coming up tomorrow. The World Cup fever has just started.
Till the next time, it's a ta-ta and a goodnight from me, Anurag Dasgupta and my co-commentators, Arjun Bhalla and Karthik Raj.
Till the next time, it's a ta-ta and a goodnight from me, Anurag Dasgupta and my co-commentators, Arjun Bhalla and Karthik Raj.