T20 World Cup: Kishan, Bowlers Thrash Pakistan By 61 Runs

It almost didn’t happen. And then it did. And when Salman Agha sent back India’s star batsman Abhishek Sharma at the end of the first over, with the score at just a single run, it suddenly made sense why the world of cricket seemed to so pivot around a game featuring India and Pakistan. The match had almost not happened, and now that it was, all the anxiety and adrenaline, the bluster and cricket smarts seemed to be on display. Pakistan, in an inspired choice, had opted to open the bowling with a spinner – its captain Agha – and Sharma who had so bossed bowlers around the world for the last couple of years, now hit him straight to mid-on. Sharma was out for a duck. India was 1/1. Every game, as the cliché goes, is just a game. But then there is the India-Pakistan match. It makes the best do heady things. It makes the ordinary suddenly do the exceptional.

But that was really the extent of it. Ishan Kishan rocked back the very next ball and nonchalantly smoked a Shaheen Shah Afridi short ball out of the ground for six. From then on, Pakistan was playing catch up. Pakistan had its strategy all thought out, bowling as many as 18 overs on a slow, spin-friendly pitch, but a dazzling 77 off 40 balls by Kishan, along with a calm and measured approach by the rest of the batting unit, showed why the Indian captain Suryakumar Yadav once declared that an India-Pakistan match is not a rivalry anymore.

Even after Kishan fell, Yadav and Tilak Varma calmly went about their business, content to play within themselves and to not squander the early advantage Kishan had given them. India scored a total of 175 for 7, courtesy largely to Kishan and some hits by Shivam Dube and Rinku Singh at the end overs. On a surface that was slow and tacky, this was, the consensus seemed to be, around 20-30 runs above par.

The game might still have proved close had Pakistan got a decent powerplay. But Hardik Pandya and Jasprit Bumrah just opened up the game in their opening burst. Pakistan’s much celebrated Afridi might not have been impressive on what was at the end of the day a spinner's track, but the two Indian seamers were. The two had Pakistan down by three wickets at the end of the second over. And once Axar Patel came on in the fourth over, another wicket, that of Babar Azam, fell to a missed slog sweep. Pakistan was 34 for 4 in 4.5 overs. There was no climbing out of that abyss.

Usman Khan held one end up for a while. He scored 44 runs off 34, hitting Pandya for a six, and then several fours off Patel. But Patel had him stumped in the 10th over, preempting Khan’s charge down the wicket by pulling the length back and firing the ball in. From then on, the rest of Pakistan’s batting just crumbled. There was not much to be done now. Not only was Tilak Verma chancing his arm around by the 12th over, even Rinku Singh had come on by the 16th.

India won the game by 61 runs, sealing its spot in the Super Eights, and leading Pakistan 8-1 in T20 World Cups.

The game had almost not happened, until it did. But for all the drama preceding the match, what transpired on the field was a bit of an anticlimax.

India 175 for 7 (Ishan Kishan 77, Saim Ayub 3-25) beat Pakistan 114 (Usman Khan 44, Hardik Pandya 2-16) by 61 runs