India v Pakistan Asia Cup T20: 5 Key Moments

India and Pakistan are known as arch-rivals and we have seen many memorable matches between India and Pakistan till this day and yesterday’s match was not a nail biter despite there being an interesting contest between the bat and ball but there were some moments came in the game when as a fan you thought that India will win or can Pakistan beat them? And here we have presented those five moments that could be the reasons why India won the match.

1. Toss:

It is always good to win the toss in Bangladesh especially when you are playing an evening game and most times captain wins the toss, decides to bowl first and look to chase the total. Indian skipper MS Dhoni won the toss on a green wicket and he opted to bowl first and Indian pace bowlers did a great job and gave only 32 runs from first 6 overs and also took 2 wickets out of three and that set the tune for India to keep a command over Pakistan in rest of the innings.

2. Hardik Pandya’s spell:

Hardik Pandya came into ball in the seventh over and prior to this match he has not proved his bowling abilities but in this game he first got the important wicket of Shoaib Malik who is known as  the main stray of Pakistan’s middle order and then bowled back to back good overs and he gave only eight runs from three overs and that showed us that he can also bowl in pressure situations and then he came in 18th over and took two wickets and helped India bowl out Pakistan for 83. But it was his first spell that helped India to keep pressure on Pakistan and eventually they were bowled out for 83 inside 18 overs.

3. Runouts:

Pakistan team and runouts is a well-known relationship and this time around in this match, we saw two runouts including captain Shahid Afridi’s who made a decision to take two runs but you cannot take chance against Ravindra Jadeja’s arm and Jadeja was once again brilliant and helped India get the wicket of Afridi with cheaply and it was the turning point of the game. In other instance Khuraam Manzoor was run out by Virat Kohli and it was Malik’s call but he ran half way though the pitch and lost his bat and got himself out at the other end. These two runouts made sure there was no partnership and even if the Indian bowlers didn’t get a wicket, they were still falling.

4. Mohammad Amir’s spell:

Can you imagine before the match that both Indian openers will be dismissed in the same over? Comeback man Mohammad Amir did exactly that and infact he picked up three wickets in his first 10 balls and gave Pakistan team and fans hope that that they can beat India and during his spell of 4 overs he bowled his heart out giving away just 18 runs and picked up 3 wickets and it was his career best figure in T20Is. Had other bowlers helped him from the other end the result could have been different. But nevertheless Amir proved that he has still has enough amunation in his bowling armory that he can rattle through any batting lineup on his day.

5. Virat Kohli’s knock:

Before this game Virat Kohli made 150 runs from 4 matches against Pakistan and today we saw the same stuff from him but at a lower strike rate but he played as per the situation and displayed lot of character and class of course. When he came into bat India had lost Rohit and then Rahane too walked back and after Suresh Raina’s dismissal he played cautiously with Yuvraj Singh and both added 68 runs together. Kohli played a handy knock of 49 runs and by the time he was out, had ensured India was at the edge of victory.