Pakistan’s Mohammad Nawaz celebrates with his teammates as he takes the wicket of India’s Suryakumar Yadav during the Asian Cup match at the Dubai International Stadium in Dubai on September 4, 2022. REUTERS/Satish Kumar
DUBAI: Mohammad Rizwan scored a second half-century in a row and Mohammad Nawaz scored an impressive 42 to give arch-rivals India five wickets with one ball to go in Sunday’s Asian Cup Super 4 match. brought victory.
Rizwan scored 71 runs on 51 deliveries while Nawaz struck out six fours and two sixes in a 20-ball innings to dominate the middle overs and Pakistan went 182-5 in response to India’s 181-7 victory. reached.
Iftikhar Ahmed finished the game with the penultimate delivery in Pakistan’s best run chase against India at T20.
Earlier, Virat Kohli’s brilliant 60 off 44 followed a 54-run opening stand between Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul, both with 28 seconds of rapid fire after India lost the toss.
However, thanks to Shadav Khan (2-31) and a left arm spin by Nawaz, Pakistan did not allow the Indian power hitters to score freely late in the inning.
Rizwan and Nawaz switched gears, with captain Babar Azam again falling into a batting power play with 14 batting averages and Fakhar Zaman holed with 15 RBIs after making 18 pitches.
A left-right combination of Rizwan and Nawaz hammered out 73 runs off 41 balls before India eliminated both batsmen in a deathover.
In the 18th over, Ashdeep Singh dropped the sitter on a point to give Asif Ali reprieve against the bowling of leg spinner Ravi Bishnoi. Asif, who had not scored a run at that stage, hit eight-ball 16 before Ashdeep claimed a wicket in the final over, but it proved too late.
It was India’s first defeat in the tournament as Pakistan avenged a five-wicket loss against their subcontinental neighbors in the opening match last Sunday.
