Asia Cup 2018: Super Four, Match 3, India vs Pakistan- Who Said What

The Dubai International Cricket Stadium was a witness to a drab affair as India ripped the heart out Pakistan with a resounding nine-wicket victory. Moreover, Rohit Sharma’s men, apart from winning their fourth match in a row, have also qualified for the final of the 2018 Asia Cup. Pakistan now will somehow have to pull their socks up in their next match against Bangladesh.

Shoaib Malik guides Pakistan

Sarfraz Ahmed won the toss and had no hesitation whosoever to bat first. Imam-ul-Haq and Fakhar Zaman were steady to start with, but Kuldeep Chahal picked up Imam to strike first blood. Thereafter, Kuldeep Yadav got rid of Fakhar by trapping him plumb in front of the stumps. Babar Azam was the next man to perish courtesy of a brilliant throw from Chahal.

The onus was on Sarfraz Ahmed and Shoaib Malik and they cobbled together a stand of 107 runs from 138 deliveries to lay the platform for the Men in Green. Kuldeep separated them with Sarfraz’s wicket. Malik and Asif Ali took charge thereafter. Ali was severe on Bhuvneshwar Kumar and hit for 22 runs in one of his overs. Pakistan eventually managed 237/7 in 50 overs.

India demolish their arch-rivals

Bearing in mind, Pakistan’s power-packed bowling attack, India’s run-chase wasn’t expected to be a walk in the park by any means. However, Rohit and Shikhar Dhawan made light work of the target and took their opponent’s bowling lineup to the cleaners. The Pakistani fielding was awful, to say the least. Imam-ul-Haq and Fakhar Zaman dropped Rohit as many as two times.

The right-hander went on to score his 19th century in the format. Dhawan, at the other end, played near flawless cricket and went about his business without much fuss. He racked up his 15th century but unfortunately was run out after he racked up  114 runs from 100 balls. Moreover, his dismissal ended a 210-run opening stand. Rohit and Ambati Rayudu took India over the line.

Sarfraz Ahmed, the Pakistani captain, said

We made it tough for ourselves by dropping those catches. We were 20-25 runs short and if we would have held on to our catches we could have possibly made things interesting. The boys are doing all the hard work but they’re not able to take those crucial catches. The wicket was a bit difficult to play on in the afternoon as the cracks had widened up. Wasn’t easy for a new batsman walking in. Had we got early wickets, this chase would have been certainly difficult.

We have been losing a lot of wickets in the early overs and hence it becomes difficult to recover from such situations. The way they batted, all credit to them. Rohit and Dhawan were exceptional. They have shown better skills as compared to us. We need to work a lot on our skill level if at all we want to get into the final. It’s a do-or-die match against Bangladesh, hopefully we’ll come out on top.

Rohit Sharma, the Indian captain, said

Challenging conditions, well done to the boys. All of them showed great amount of character. We spoke about leaving past performances behind and give out our best today and that is what happened. I think he’s matured as a bowler now, he understands his bowling and I think he understands what fields he needs to set and gotta keep it tight. Bhuvi also did the same. It was important to keep it tight and the spinners also did the same. When you keep them in control that’s the kind of targets you get to chase.

When Hardik got injured, the challenge was to field four spinners and we thought about a few combintions and in these conditions it is important to bowl spin. The entiore bowling unit stuck to their task and hats off to them. With Shikhar I don’t need to talk much. We have batted enough to know each other and our roles. We always knew that the new batsman will find it hard to settle and Shikhar and I knew it. Nothing is easy. I’ve really worked hard on those shots. It’s important to put pressure on bowlers. They have one of the best bowling attacks. We understand the importance of the new ball.

Shikhar Dhawan, the Man of the Match, said

I enjoyed my game and I’ve been in good touch and just wanted to make the most of it. It’s a good batting track and I have enjoyed the way I was batting. It was sensible and liked the balance of it. Pakistan got a good bowling attack and I knew that as openers we have to stay because they have got good pace and once I got set and I kept carrying on. As I’ve mentioned I wanted to be sensible with my shots and I’ve thrown it away in the past and I have learnt the lessons the hard way. That’s the good for me and it’s nice to have that balance. When you play 20 overs it get easy.

The plan was not to lose wickets in the first 10 overs and you might not get runs easily early on Rohit played an amazing knock today and he’s very good at converting those 50s into 100s and that’s something I’ve learnt from him. It’s good that we both value our wicket. Last game we both scored runs but didn’t have the hunger and we knew we shouldn’t be missing out on big knocks and I’m glad we did the job for the team today.

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