Given the start they had, India were 10-15 runs short against Pakistan, says Nikhil Chopra

A thrilling encounter between the arch-nemeses saw Pakistan beat India by 5 wickets in their first match of the Super Four. The match went down to the wire and with Iftikhar Ahmed’s double in the second last ball of the match, Pakistan took the game home and registered an important victory against India. Now, as things stand, the Men in Blue will have to win all two of their remaining matches to qualify for the finals of the Asia Cup.

Speaking about the game, former India international Nikhil Chopra believes that the team were 10-15 runs short. Batting first, India posted 181 runs on board in a much friendlier batting track. Virat Kohli led the batting line-up with his 60 off 44 deliveries while no other batter could stick in the crease for a longer time and India couldn’t capitalise on their great start in the match.

“India were 10-15 runs short. The kind of cricket we played in the powerplay and I think after the 10th over, we had 93-94 runs on board and with wickets in hand. So, you want to stay close to that score because you have wickets in your hand,” said Chopra in BatBricks7 presents Run Ki Runneeti' on CricTracker.

The 48-year-old added, “Credit goes to the spinners of the Pakistan team. They stopped the flow of the runs and most importantly, no Indian cricketer could build a partnership with Virat Kohli in the middle and that is why India were 10-15 runs short in the end.”

The three wickets in the middle stopped India from scoring a favourable total: Wasim Jaffer

Last night, it was seen how furious Rohit Sharma was following Rishabh Pant and Hardik Pandya’s dismissal. Rishabh’s loose shot to Shadab Khan and Hardik’s dismissal of Mohammad Hasnain’s delivery pushed India further down in the match. Deepak Hooda’s slow innings of 16 off 14 deliveries is also something that didn’t help India. 

Like Nikhil Chopra stated, no Indian batter could help Kohli take the score to 200. In a belter of a wicket, Pakistan had a shaky start but the heroics of Mohammad Rizwan and Mohammad Nawaz saw the Men in Green take the game home. With that, questions have been asked on India’s middle order batting.

“India were losing wickets on regular intervals and that didn’t help India. After scoring 93 in the first 10 overs, one expected to score 100-110 in the next ten but losing KL Rahul’s wicket was unexpected. It was very unlike KL Rahul. I can understand the mentality but that was a setback for team India,” said Jaffer on the same show.

“With Virat, Suryakumar Yadav was first dismissed. Hardik Pandya did not bat well while Rishabh Pant hit an ordinary shot to get out. So, I believe it is because of these three wickets, India could not score the runs that they should have. 181 in the end is a good score but India were 12-15 runs short in the end,” added the 44-year-old.