Blind Cricket World Cup: Defending champs India beat Pakistan by 7 wickets

India faced arch-rivals Pakistan in the on-going Blind Cricket World Cup. As the Indian team refused to travel to Pakistan, their matches are hosted in the UAE. Five of Pakistan’s key players were missing as they failed to obtain visas in time. The match was played at the Ujman Oval and the hosts were defeated by 7 wickets at the hands of the Indians.

India won the toss and chose to field first. Batting first Pakistan scored a total of 282 runs in their quota of 40 overs for the loss of 8 wickets. For the Men in Green, the top scorer of the inning was Md Jail who added 90 runs at a healthy strike rate of almost a run a ball. He eventually retired hurt.

Deepak Malik at it again

The Indians in their response scored the runs at a brisk rate and won the game with 5 overs to spare. The Man of the Match was Haryana boy Deepak Malik as he scored 79 with the help of eight fours. The win places India at the top of their table while the hosts closely follow them on the second spot.

In their previous match, the defending champions defeated Sri Lanka by 6 wickets. It was Malik who had steered India in the previous match as well with his unbeaten knock of 179 off just 103 balls. Sri Lanka batted well and posted a huge 359 runs on the board but the chase never looked improbable. The opener was present throughout the chase and India managed to overhaul the target with 8 overs to spare.

The Indians face Bangladesh and Nepal in their next two matches and will be hoping to end the group stages with a flourish. The semi-finals of the Blind Cricket World Cup starts on 17th January and the grand finale of the same will be played on January 21.