TimesofIndia.com in Dubai:
A few days ago, R Ashwin cheekily suggested that South Africa be thrown into the Asia Cup mix and the event be rechristened the Afro-Asia Cup, just to inject some real competition. After Sunday, he may have had a point.On Sunday, under the sweltering Dubai heat, the so-called “arch-rivalry”, once again, felt like a damp squib.The only real drama came when India captain Suryakumar Yadav refused the customary handshake at the toss with his counterpart Salman Ali Agha. Beyond that, Pakistan barely showed up, reduced to mere spectators in what was once cricket’s fiercest duel.After opting to bat first, Pakistan batters looked rattled against pace and were all at sea against India’s quality spinners. Shaheen Afridi’s unbeaten 33 off 16 balls, laced with four sixes—including a brutal assault on Hardik Pandya in the final over — dragged Pakistan to 127/9. India won the match comprehensively by seven wickets.
No handshakes
India, with Suryakumar Yadav and Shivam Dube in the middle, marched back to their dressing room the moment the game ended. The Indian pairing exchanged handshakes with teammates in the dugout, before the entire squad disappeared upstairs. The door shut firmly, echoing Suryakumar Yadav’s snub at the toss, as the Indian cricket team once again refused to shake hands with Pakistan.Caught in the middle, Salman Ali Agha’s men stopped mid-way after head coach Mike Hesson ordered them towards their dressing room. But not a single Indian player emerged. A visibly miffed Hesson then stormed to India’s dressing room, found no response, and was later spotted in a heated discussion with match referee Andy Pycroft.Later, SKY dedicated the win to the armed forces and expressed solidarity with the victims of the Pahalgam terror attack. “We stand by the victims of the families of the Pahalgam terror attack. We express our solidarity. Want to dedicate the win to all our armed forces who showed a lot of bravery,” he said in the post-match press conference.
Pakistan folded like a deck of cards
Hardik Pandya struck off the very first legal delivery of the match, sending Saim Ayub packing for his second golden duck in a row. Jasprit Bumrah then removed Pakistan’s recent hero Mohammad Haris, thanks to a sharp catch from Hardik Pandya.Thereafter, there was some spunk shown by Sahibzada Farhan (40 off 44; 1×4, 3×6), who has replaced Babar Azam in the team. He briefly resisted with a couple of sixes off Bumrah.The battle between Sahibzada Farhan and Jasprit Bumrah was fascinating. Pakistan’s highest run-getter of the match tonked Bumrah over mid-on for a six.A ball later, there was a change in field. Shubman Gill walked to short mid-wicket from the only slip, and Bumrah tried an attempted yorker. The low full toss took Farhan by surprise and it nearly carried to Bumrah in the follow-through, but despite his full-stretched dive, it fell short.
India’s Kuldeep Yadav (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)
For the second match in a row, Bumrah bowled three overs on the trot in the powerplay. This time, Farhan dispatched him into the second tier. It was angling into the body, and the Pakistani opener swivelled his blade, got wood, and became only the sixth batter to hit multiple sixes off Bumrah in T20Is. To add to that, he also became the first Pakistan batter to hit a six off Bumrah’s bowling in this format.Next ball, Farhan tried another maximum but ended up miscuing it and it fell in no man’s land.Farhan added 39 runs while Fakhar Zaman, whose cameo ended at 17, was dismissed by Axar Patel.After that, India’s spinners tore through Pakistan’s middle order.Axar’s twin blows and Kuldeep’s double-strike ripped through Pakistan’s innings, choking their scoring despite desperate aggression. At one stage even 100 looked out of reach, before Shaheen’s late fireworks lifted them to something to fight with.Kuldeep Yadav (3/18) was once again India’s trump card, with Axar (2/18), Bumrah (2/28), Varun (1/24) and Pandya (1/34) ensuring Pakistan never settled.
India barely break sweat
Abhishek Sharma started the chase in a way he always does. He made Shaheen Shah Afridi look like a club bowler—hitting a four and a six in the first two balls of the innings. He gave Shaheen the same treatment in his second spell, hammering him for a four and a maximum.Abhishek looked in a hurry, clattering Saim Ayub for back-to-back boundaries. With him at the crease, it looked like India would chase it down inside ten overs.But Saim Ayub, who is failing miserably with the bat, removed both Indian openers.Shubman Gill was deceived by a carrom ball. After being hit for two boundaries, Ayub bowled the ball of the match. The carrom ball dipped on off stump, Gill pressed forward but it turned away, beating the outside edge. Haris whipped off the bails in a flash. Saim then sent back Abhishek with a slower off-break, caught at long-off by Faheem Ashraf. Abhishek scored a quickfire 13-ball 31.
India’s captain Suryakumar Yadav (PTI Photo)
Tilak Varma (31 off 31b; 2×4, 1×6) and Suryakumar Yadav (47 not out off 37 balls) put on a steady run-a-ball 56-run partnership for the third wicket to knock Pakistan out of the game.The duo looked at ease, rotated strike, hit a few audacious shots, and managed to keep Pakistan at bay.It was Saim Ayub who finally broke the partnership with another ripper. A quicker off-break on middle drifted in, pitched, and turned sharply. Tilak went back to defend but was beaten by the spin as the ball crashed into the off-stump. Saim Ayub had his third, while Tilak stood surprised at where it had pitched.Saim Ayub (3/35) was the pick of the Pakistan bowlers.Suryakumar Yadav sealed the match with a six, with 25 balls to spare, as India chased down the total comfortably.Overall, it was a nothing performance from Pakistan, and it looked like a mismatch competition both on paper and on the field.