Ishan Kishan blended brute force with elegant skill to secure a brilliant fifty, while Jasprit Bumrah dismantled Pakistan’s batting order with his wickedly skillful bowling attack, propelling India to a commanding 61-run victory and a guaranteed Super Eight spot in the T20 World Cup on Sunday. This marks India’s most dominant triumph over Pakistan by run-margin in T20I history. India now holds a crushing 8-1 advantage over Pakistan in T20 World Cup encounters. Kishan’s exceptional 77 runs off 40 deliveries on the challenging Premadasa surface proved invaluable, steering India to a formidable total of 175/7 after being sent in to bat. Pakistan crumbled for just 114 runs within 18 overs. India Outplayed Pakistan In A ruthless Manner .
TOSS
Pakistan won the toss and chose to field first.
PLAYING XI
India (Playing XI):
Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan(w), Tilak Varma, Suryakumar Yadav(c), Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Rinku Singh, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Varun Chakaravarthy, Jasprit Bumrah
Pakistan (Playing XI):
Saim Ayub, Sahibzada Farhan, Salman Agha(c), Babar Azam, Mohammad Nawaz, Usman Khan(w), Shadab Khan, Faheem Ashraf, Shaheen Afridi, Abrar Ahmed, Usman Tariq
INDIA
Abhishek Sharma’s comeback to India’s starting eleven fell flat as Pakistan captain Salman Agha stifled him during the first over before forcing a mistimed shot that resulted in a simple catch at mid-on. However, that lone breakthrough was all Pakistan managed during the PowerPlay, which Kishan absolutely dominated. Shaheen Afridi’s opening delivery was ruthlessly dispatched for a towering six, setting the tone as Kishan and Tilak Varma began collecting fortunate boundaries. Kishan then shifted into top gear, aggressively targeting Abrar Ahmed and Saim Ayub while Tilak watched from the other end.
Kishan mercilessly tormented Pakistan’s bowling attack, which kept serving up spin options. Abrar suffered three consecutive boundaries that launched Kishan to his fifty, while Shadab Khan’s first over hemorrhaged 17 runs as the opener smashed another maximum and boundary. The onslaught finally ended when Ayub cleverly reduced his pace, leaving Kishan swinging at air as the ball rattled his stumps. His exit dramatically slowed India’s momentum. The remaining batsmen struggled mightily on the spin-friendly track to accumulate runs. After reaching 89/2 in 9 overs, India managed merely 38 runs across the following six overs.
Ayub maintained excellent spin and struck back decisively, claiming two wickets in consecutive deliveries during the 15th over. The spin assault persisted into the final overs as Suryakumar Yadav (32 from 29 balls) battled valiantly for his team. Usman Tariq, who garnered attention before the match, bowled an economical spell and earned the Indian captain’s dismissal in the 19th over, but Shivam Dube and Rinku Singh responded with crucial boundaries to push India beyond the 170-run threshold.
PAKISTAN-
Pakistan actually needed to use the fielding restrictions well or definitely hope that dew would help them in the second half. The 2009 champions faced further trouble when Hardik Pandya dismissed Sahibzada Farhan in the first over itself, making up for his earlier duck. Further, after the wicket maiden, India actually got more wickets in the next over when Bumrah bowled a fast yorker to get Ayub out lbw, and then Agha definitely played a weak shot to get out for just 4 runs. Basically after just two overs, Pakistan were already at the same position of 13 runs with 3 wickets down.
Basically, Pakistan was facing the same tough situation because spin bowling hadn’t even started yet after their bad beginning. Usman Khan actually fought back with many boundaries but Axar Patel definitely got Babar Azam out to make things worse for Pakistan. India further tightened their grip on Pakistan using spin bowlers like Varun Chakaravarthy, Kuldeep Yadav and Axar who kept the scoring under control. The spin bowling itself proved very effective against the Pakistani batsmen. Also, as per expectations, Pakistan collapsed in the second half regarding their performance.
We are seeing that Usman, who was batting best that night, got stumped by Axar and Mohammad Nawaz only hit the ball to Dube near the boundary. Tilak further contributed by taking a wicket on his first ball when Shadab mistimed the shot and got caught near long on, as Pakistan’s innings itself was nearing its end. Chakaravarthy surely came back to bowl and helped speed up the game, moreover he took wickets on back-to-back balls. We are seeing that the spinner only missed his hat-trick, but Hardik finished the game in the 18th over. As per this loss, Pakistan must beat Namibia in their last group match regarding their qualification.
Brief scores:
Also, india surely dominated Pakistan with a commanding 61-run victory, posting 175/7 in their full quota of overs with Ishan Kishan’s impressive 77 leading the charge. Moreover, Pakistan’s batting collapsed to just 114 runs in 18 overs despite Usman Khan’s fighting 44, as Hardik Pandya and Varun Chakaravarthy claimed two wickets each.
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