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.
India 146-6 (19.2)
Good start from Rauf, first beating Hardik Pandya with a ball that just misses off-stump and then conceding only two to a rather nasty heave to leg.
FIVE! India 144-6 (19), H Pandya 9 (5), B Kumar 1 (1)
FIVE! Yes, five! Byes, too! What are you doing Pakistan?
Pandya misses with his swing as another Afridi slower ball out-foxes him, and India are desperate to keep their gun-hitter on strike, so Bhuvneshwar Kumar hurries through for a quick single to the keeper.
Rizwan tosses to Shaheen, who hurls for the stumps at the bowler’s end but misses wildly, and it evades the long-off fielder for buzzers. Five byes, Pandya on strike, India up over the 140 mark and eyeing 155 as Haris Rauf prepares to see the innings out.
FOUR! India 138-6 (18.5)
Brilliant from Hardik Pandya, slicing Shaheen quite deliberately through backward point as he receives an inviting full toss. Away it races for four, and it’s a no-ball, too. Shaheen over-steps and Hardik will try to have some fun with the free hit...
OUT! Virat Kohli c †Mohammad Rizwan b Shaheen Shah Afridi 57 (49b 5x4 1x6), India 133-6 (18.4)
This time it falls into Mohammad Rizwan’s hands and Virat Kohli is on his way! Shaheen Shah Afridi strikes again!
Another slower ball that sticks in this tacky Dubai surface and Kohli is ahead of the ball, which hops like an anxious rabbit off his top edge and nestles deep in the gloves of Rizwan after the keeper lunges at it after taking a stride-and-a-half to his right. A battling knock from Kohli to get his team to a defendable score but how he would have liked to push them on further.
FOUR! India 133-5 (18.3)
Shaheen starts by pushing it too far across Hardik, rightly signalled as a wide, but then gets his slower ball spot on, leaping from a length above Pandya’s swing to leg.
Cruel! That’s a brilliant yorker from Shaheen that Hardik can only jam his bat down on, but he makes strangely sweet connection as he preserves his wicket, and the ball flies down to third man, beating the fielder hustling around the rope for four.
Out this time? No, it falls between the fielders! Hardik was late on a pull but neither the bowler nor wicketkeeper can hurry to the ball in time to snatch it out of the air.
OUT! Ravindra Jadeja c sub (Mohammad Nawaz) b Hasan Ali 13 (13b 1x4 0x6), India 125-5 (17.5)
A slower ball fools Jadeja and he is on his way! It looked like it was of a hittable length but Jadeja fails to adjust to Ali’s change-up, getting underneath the ball and picking out the man on the midwicket fence, who runs in about 15 yards to gobble it up.
Hardik Pandya to the crease with two overs to cause some damage. Virat Kohli charges back for two to give the new man the strike at the start of the 19th - which Shaheen Shah Afridi will bowl.
FOUR! India 125-4 (17.4)
Here come India! Ali strays down the leg side and Ravindra Jadeja uses the pace on the ball to lob him over fine leg. A couple of skips and into the boundary.
50 FOR VIRAT KOHLI! India 120-4 (17.2)
A quickly taken two and that will be a half century for the Indian captain. A muted raise of the bat to the balcony - there are more runs to be scored, but my word is Virat Kohli consistent at ICC T20 tournaments.
And that’s a wonderful way of celebrating, sitting back as a back-of-the-hand ball from Hasan Ali sticks in the surface and unfurling a delicious drive over extra-cover on the top of the bounce. Gorgeous!
India 114-4 (17), V Kohli 48 (44), R Jadeja 9 (11)
Outstanding from Haris Rauf. With expert control and canny changes of pace, he concedes just four from the over as Kohli is content to take just one from the last ball to keep the strike.
Hasan Ali to bowl his fourth. Shaheen Shah Afridi to bowl the last, then, you’d think.
India 113-4 (16.4)
Rauf mixes things up well with a rare slower ball defeating Ravindra Jadeja, who looked to be lining up something large to leg but can only dig it out for a scrambled single.
Even better! An off-cutter that sticks in the surface and leaps over the top of a Virat Kohli cut. Kohli mimes the shot with his hand, frustrated with his inability to get Rauf away.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments