India vs Pakistan LIVE: T20 World Cup final score, result and reaction today
Pakistan beat great rivals India in T20 World Cup showdown
Captain Babar Azam led by example as Pakistan beat India in a World Cup showdown for the first time ever with a 10-wicket romp in a Super 12 blockbuster at the Twenty20 World Cup on Sunday.
Virat Kohli played a captain’s knock of 57 to rescue India from a top-order wobble and help them post a competitive 151-7 in a rematch of the inaugural 2007 final.
His counterpart Babar combined with Mohammad Rizwan to get Pakistan off to a flying start and then overwhelmed the target with 13 balls to spare to snap India’s 100% win record against them in limited-overs World Cups.
Babar remained not out on 68, while Rizwan made an unbeaten 79.
Wary of the dew factor, captains have preferred to field and Babar too followed that trend after winning the toss.
Pakistan did not have to wait long for a breakthrough as Shaheen Afridi (3-31) struck twice in his first seven deliveries to rattle India.
The left-arm pacer fired in a searing yorker-length delivery to dismiss Rohit Sharma lbw for a golden duck and, in his next over, rifled one through KL Rahul’s gate to rearrange the stumps.
Suryakumar Yadav hit Afridi for a six but Rizwan took a diving catch behind the stumps to dismiss the batsman and reduce India to 31-3 in the sixth over.
Kohli and Rishabh Pant calmed nerves in the Indian camp and guided the team to 60-3 at the halfway stage of the innings.
Pant then decided to counter-attack and hit Hasan Ali for back-to-back sixes but his ultra-aggression ultimately did him in.
Shadab Khan foxed Pant with a googly to induce a skier which the spinner caught himself to dismiss the batsman for 39.
Kohli fell in the penultimate over of the innings trying to accelerate but India still made the 150-mark.
Pakistan, in their reply, not only kept their wickets intact in the powerplay overs but also scored briskly with Babar and Rizwan effectively killing off the contest with their rock-solid stand.
Babar brought up his fifty in style, hitting spinner Varun Chakravarthy for a six, while Rizwan reached his own fifty with a pulled boundary off Jasprit Bumrah.
REVIEW! Have Pakistan got Rishabh Pant? India 41-3 (7.4)
It’s not given on the field but keeper Mohammad Rizwan is convinced there is a feather on Rishabh Pant’s jaunty reverse sweep. Babar Azam gives Marais Erasmus the T - we are going upstairs...
India 41-3 (7.3)
And with the left-hander in mind, Babar Azam now turns to Mohammad Hafeez - a wily off-spinner of vast experience and a useful option when not under suspicion for the legality of the kink of his arm.
Pant gets a stride in and sweeps his second ball to square leg for one, before Virat Kohli drives to long-on.
India 39-3 (7)
The field spreads as we exit the powerplay and Shadab Khan, Pakistan’s leg-spinner, is introduced. Khan cramps the left-handed Pant well with his first three balls, not daring to give the ball any flight, though Pant is eventually able to step away from a googly and cut to the point boundary for a couple.
Another googly draws Pant from his crease but he is forced to defend after being foxed in the flight, and he’s content to escape the over for an addition of only three as he flicks to deep midwicket to retain the strike. Strong start from Shadab against a batter that may look to target him.
FOUR! India 36-3 (6)
Yadav rather got his feet stuck there, not quite moving at the ball and thus being all shoulders and arms rather than an efficient entity.
Rishabh Pant is the new batter and India’s first left-hander, prompting Hasan Ali to go around the wicket.
After a single, Ali is back over the wicket and his bowlers are fetching the ball from the cover boundary, where it had been signed, sealed and delivered by a lovely cover drive from Virat Kohli, showing Suryakumar Yadav how to do it as his limbs work in combination to drive delightfully to the fence. India are in strife but their captain looks in good nick.
OUT! Suryakumar Yadav c †Mohammad Rizwan b Hasan Ali 11 (8b 1x4 1x6), India 31-3 (5.4)
Three in the powerplay for Pakistan! It’s an accomplished grab behind the stumps from Mohammad Rizwan and Suryakumar Yadav pays for his adventure.
The ball isn’t quite there for Yadav’s forceful off-side punch, perhaps just going away from the right-hander a touch as Hasan Ali hits a back of a length. It draws a thickish outside edge, with Rizwan moving well to his right to pouch on the dive. Ali celebrates with customary gusto - India into further bother.
India 31-2 (5.2)
A first bowling change from Babar Azam, and our first sighting of a right-armer. Hasan Ali rarely lacks for intensity and this might be precisely his sort of contest.
Virat Kohli is again sauntering from his crease as he looks to knock Ali off his length, but it’s a dot ball to start as he finds a fielder in the ring. He gets his single from the second ball of the over, though, dabbing down to third man on the fence.
SIX! India 30-2 (5)
How about that for an emphatic riposte? Three dot balls from Shaheen only ire Virat Kohli, who steps away, frees the arms and launches the ball back over Shaheen’s head for a meaty six, disturbing the Pakistan substitute fielders in the balcony beyond the long-on boundary. Crisp from the Indian captain.
That’s good, too, pinching one to mid-off on the ring as Kohli notices a fielder slightly on their heels.
India 23-2 (4.2 overs)
Shaheen will continue as Babar Azam looks to press home the advantage. It might leave him a touch short at the death but why not use a man of such scintillating talent with a newish white ball in his hands?
FOUR! India 21-2 (4)
Imad Wasim gets a second on the spin, and there’s a big appear as Suryakumar Yadav misses a sweep to his fourth ball, with the Indian number four’s elongated stride just, just getting him outside of the line of off-stump. That would have been hitting on the angle from the left-armer around the wicket with nary a hint of turn, but ball-tracking confirms that it did strike Yadav a couple of inches outside of the line.
Two balls later and he repeats the shot, this time far more effectively, down on one knee and paddling the ball like an oarsman, efficiently and swiftly past the short fine leg fielder and to the boundary. Yadav off to a good start.
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