India-Pakistan
Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Pandya restrict Pakistan to 147
Dubai: India looks well within their sight of avenging the World Cup T20 defeat after Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Hardik Pandya, shared seven wickets between them, helping their team to restrict Pakistan to a paltry 147 in the second match of 2022 T20 Asia Cup here on Sunday.
Kumar finished with an impressive figures of 4 for 24 and Pandya with 3 for 25. Young fast bowler Arshdeep Singh also was impressive, bagging 2 wickets for 33. Avesh Khan chipped in with a wicket.
This bowling performance could be enough for India to start the tournament on a winning note, considering India's strong batting lineup and their current form in bilateral T20 series.
The high-octane clash got off to a dramatic start with two of the reviews going in favour of Pakistan in the very first over.
Captain Babar Azam got off the chips with glorious drives, but fell to Kumar's nappy bouncing delivery after making 10 of hi blades.
Fakhar Zaman walked off after he nicked one to Dinesh Karthik behind the stumps off Avesh, which the spectators also could not believe that he had done as as no Indian fielder jumped in air joy, except the Indian keeper.
Iftikhar Ahmed (28 off 22 balls) and Mohammad Rizwan (43 off 42) stood the ground and built a 45 runs for third wicket, but the former lost his wicket to Pandya's bumper after the ball sailed into the gloves of Karthik once again.
Continuing with his bumpers, Pandya picked two more wickets. Thereoff, Pakistan kept losing wickets and if not for those late boundaries from Haris Rauf (13 no) and Shahnawaz Dahani (16 off 6 2x6s), they would have finished with a much lesser score.
When Indian batsmen walk onto the field, it remains to be seen whether they can get 148 runs easily or the Pakistani bowlers make a contest out of it. Interesting couple of hours is in the offing.
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