Pak beats India in a last-over thriller

Pakistan took revenge on India for last week’s defeat in Asia Cup’s group stage game. In the super-4 match held tonight, the men in green had beaten the men in blue by 5 wickets. Just like the last game, even this match between the arch-rivals turned out to be a last-over thriller.

Pakistan’s skipper Babar Azam won the toss and chose to bowl first. Indian openers Rohit Sharma (28) and KL Rahul (28) gave a stunning start by smashing boundaries right from the first over. They made a partnership of 54 runs in just 5 overs. After Rohit got out, Kohli (60) joined Rahul in the crease. Within no time, Rahul also went back to the pavilion. After that, all middle-order batters got out in regular intervals. But, Kohli kept going on the other end and scored a half-century. This is his second half-century in this edition of the Asia Cup. By the end of 20 overs, India managed to score 181/7.

The poor form of Pakistan’s skipper Babar Azam continued as he got out pretty early in the chase. Later, in-form Mohammed Rizwan (71) played cautiously with Fakhar Zaman (15) and made a partnership of 41 runs. Later, the latter got out as well. Then came Mohammed Nawaz (42 off 20 balls) who played a sensational knock. His 73-run stand with Rizwan brought back Pakistan into the game. Finally, Bhuvi got his wicket in the 16th over. In the next over, star batter Mohammed Rizwan got out as well. However, Bhuvi conceded 19 runs in the 19th over, making things easy for the opponents. Eventually, Pak won the game by scoring 182/5 in 19.5 overs.

India will play its next game against Sri Lanka on September 6. Pakistan will play its next match against Afghanistan on September 7.