India followed up a great bowling effort with some steady batting to beat Pakistan comfortably by eight wickets in a Group A match of the Asia Cup in Dubai. It was India's biggest win over their arch-rivals in terms of the number of balls remaining—126.
Openers Shikhar Dhawan (46) and stand-in skipper Rohit Sharma (52) shared a 86-run stand for the first wicket. Dhawan seemed to carrying on from where he left off in the first match against Hong Kong, where he scored 127 runs. Though both he and Sharma were dismissed within the space of three overs, Ambati Rayudu (31*) and Dinesh Karthik (31*) prevented further hiccups with an unbeaten 60-run partnership, helping India achieve the 163-run target in 29 overs.
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For Pakistan, Faheem Ashraf and Shadab Khan took a wicket each. But Khan had to leave the field soon with a back injury.
Earlier, a brilliant bowling display from India saw Pakistan being bowled out for 162 runs in 43.1 overs. Bhuvneshwar Kumar (3/15) and Kedar Jadhav (3/23) were the wreckers-in-chief. They were ably supported by Jasprit Bumrah (2/23) and chinaman Kuldeep Yadav (1/37).
The only area of concern for India was the exit of all-rounder Hardik Pandya with an injury.
Pakistan were off to a disastrous start, losing two wickets for three runs. However, Babar Azam (47) and veteran Shoaib Malik (43) added 82 runs for the third wicket to steady the ship.
However, the resistance was short-lived, as Pakistan suffered a batting collapse, losing five wickets for 37 runs before Faheem Ashraf (21) and Mohammed Aamir (18) added an invaluable 37 runs for the eighth wicket to take the total past 150-run mark.
India now play Bangladesh and Pakistan will play Afghanistan in the Super Four, both on Sep 21. The arch-rivals, however, will play each other again on Sep 23.
