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 110-4 (16), V Kohli 46 (40), R Jadeja 7 (9)
Two more singles take India to 110 with four overs to go. What can India get from here with Kohli beginning to accelerate and Hardik Pandya to come? Haris Rauf will bowl two of them, with Shaheen Shah Afridi and Hasan Ali each with one left - here’s Rauf to bowl the seventeenth.
FOUR! India 108-4 (15.4)
Is that the start? Hasan Ali’s slower-ball bouncer cuts nicely into the arc of Virat Kohli’s pull and it evades short fine leg to give Kohli his first boundary for a little while.
But Ali straight away replies by beating Kohli outside off-stump with another back of a length ball! Good battle, this.
Lovely from Kohli! Over-pitched from Ali and a gentle caress is followed to the boundary by mid-off, who can’t quite reel it in before it collides with the advertising cushions that cover the rope. Kohli five away from his half-century.
Kohli building dangerously?
Virat Kohli has barely played a shot in anger through the middle overs, which is sometimes his modus operandi ahead of an explosion at the death, as these figures show. Will he be able to find his striking form tonight?
India 100-4 (15), V Kohli 37 (35), R Jadeja 6 (8)
Lovely stuff from Shadab, whose form with the ball has dipped a touch in the last 18 months but has flighted it beautifully this evening. He gives Jadeja, sent in partly to potentially target him, you’d think, nothing and concedes just a single from the first half of the over.
Kohli trots to the other end after a push to the cover sweeper but soon returns as Jadeja drives to long-off. A crisp cut to cover brings another 22-yard saunter for the India captain to close the over, and complete Shadab’s allocation - 4 overs, 1 for 22 are his rather impressive figures. A pleasing start to the tournament for the wrist spinner.
FOUR! India 96-4 (14), V Kohli 35 (33), R Jadeja 4 (4)
Shoaib Malik twice gets his slightly aged legs moving at third man as he hustles round to first save four on the slide and then prevent Jadeja charging back for a second. Rauf then tries to test Virat Kohli upstairs, but pulls his length back to far and a wide is signalled for height.
That’s loose, too, pushed down the legside and effectively sent on, Kohli giving the ball a pat on the back as it careers past the keeper to the fence. A yorker length, but the line was wrong, and Rauf howls into his hands in anguish.
A dot to close the over and Shadab Khan will bowl out.
India 88-4 (13.2)
Haris Rauf is back on and clocking 92 mph (148kph) with his first two balls. Brisk.
India 87-4 (13), V Kohli 30 (30), R Jadeja 1 (1)
Shadab had nearly five seconds to get underneath that skyer from Pant, which went the best part of 30 metres in the air.
Jadeja nudges one to get off the mark from his first ball. These two are both rapid between the wickets, and they are already look to turn ones into twos as Virat Kohli also adds a single to his tally from teh final ball of Shadab’s third over.
OUT! Rishabh Pant c & b Shadab Khan 39 (30b 2x4 2x6), India 84-4 (12.2)
Finally he falls! It’s another heroic heave for the fences from Rishabh Pant, targeting a long boundary to cow corner as Shadab Khan deceives him with a googly. It goes a mile in the air and Khan, a very safe pair of hands, has plenty of times to trot back and to his left to take it with a reverse cup high above his head.
Pant falls, and India replace him with another left-hander - Ravindra Jadeja, in a cap, sent in ahead of Hardik Pandya.
India 81-3 (12), V Kohli 28 (27), R Pant 37 (28)
A good over for India. Pant beginning to find his range.
Just the one-over spell for Haris Rauf - Babar Azam goes back to his leg spinner, Shadab Khan.
SIX MORE! India 78-3 (11.3)
Another one-hander! Over mid-off this time, bottom hand drawn from the bat as Pant swings through the line of a length ball and gives it just enough club to pitch it a yard beyond the boundary. The fielder is in the circle - it’s back-to-back sixes! Pant on to 34 from 26.
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