India pip Pakistan in a high-octane thriller as Hardik Pandya shines

When it’s India colliding with Pakistan, there are no second thoughts, there isn’t any history and most importantly, life comes to a standstill. In one such incredible encounter where the stakes were high, Team India managed to walk out with the bragging rights at the end of a reverberating thriller that would be remembered for a while to come.

Winning the toss, Rohit Sharma opted to bowl first and India’s strike bowler, Bhuvneshwar Kumar repaid his faith with an absolute banger that left Babar Azam gobsmacked as Arshdeep Singh pouched a sitter to remove the Pakistani skipper.

Despite Mohammad Rizwan’s early battery laced with a couple of fine strokes from Fakhar Zaman, India soon found themselves back in the contest as a battered Avesh Khan delivered a crucial blow with Dinesh Karthik grabbing onto a stunner that removed the hard-hitting Zaman.

Iftikhar Ahmed joined Rizwan in the middle and the duo put up a decent show with the runs coming in but the Indian bowlers forced the lid on, squeezing the run-flow for Pakistan as the pressure kept mounting.

Eventually, the wary approach of Pakistan would give in to India’s bowling maneuvers as Hardik Pandya dealt a triple whammy from where the Men in green collapsed. Shanawaz Dahani played a handful of late strokes to propel Pakistan to a warring total but India’s batting had ample depth to take the fight back to their arch-rivals.

Much to India’s surprise, KL Rahul had to embark upon a long walk back to the pavilion as debutant Naseem Shah ripped through his defence and the former played onto his middle stump.

Virat seemed to be in intimidating touch as he dictated the proceedings alongside Rohit Sharma who was more of a front-row spectator to Virat’s brilliance. Sadly, for Team India they lost Rohit and Virat in a span of just six balls. Suryakumar Yadav did put up a fight alongside Ravindra Jadeja but couldn’t capitalize on the early start and lost his wicket to Naseem Shah.

An incoming Hardik Pandya took his time to settle down, but once he had the wheels rolling, he combined perfectly with Ravindra Jadeja to keep the momentum going as the match started sliding down to the wire with India mainly dealing in singles and doubles laced with occasional bursts of extras from Pakistan that aided India’s chase.

With 32 required off the final 18 balls, Ravindra Jadeja was imparted an early edge as Pakistan had an extra fielder inside the circle owing to a slow over-rate. Despite 10 runs coming from Jadeja’s bat in the 18th over, it was a Pandya special in the 19th that tipped the scales in India’s favour as the equation came down to 7 required off the final 6.

Despite the fall of Jadeja on the very first ball of the 19th over, Pandya took a ball to gauge Nawaz’s turn and dispatched the following delivery beyond the ropes that also sealed the fate of the contest and earned two crucial points for Team India.

Hardik was awarded the man of the match for his match-winning knock of 33 from 17 balls while he also claimed 3 crucial wickets with the ball in his hand. India will be facing Hong Kong on Wednesday at the same venue as they look to top the group heading into the Super 4 stage.