India secured their T20 World Cup Super 8 qualification with a dominant 61-run victory over Pakistan on Sunday (February 15) at the R Premadasa Stadium
in Colombo.
Ishan Kishan starred with the bat while the bowlers crippled Pakistan's run chase with excellent display as India completed their rout against the arch-rivals.
India vs Pakistan - As It Happened
Batting first after Pakistan opted to field, India posted 175/7 in 20 overs, powered by opener Ishan Kishan's explosive 77 off 40 balls (10 fours, 3 sixes)-his aggressive strokeplay included a six off Shaheen Afridi's first over and an 87-run stand with Tilak Varma (25). Suryakumar Yadav added 32, while Saim Ayub claimed 3/25 for Pakistan. Shivam Dube played well for 27, while Rinku Singh scored an unbeaten 11 off just 4 balls.
Pakistan's chase unraveled spectacularly, collapsing to 114 all out in 18 overs. Usman Khan's gritty 44 was the lone resistance, but India's bowlers struck ruthlessly: Hardik Pandya (2/16, including a maiden over), Jasprit Bumrah (2/17), and Varun Chakravarthy (2/17) shared spoils, reducing Pakistan to 13/3 inside two overs.
Usman played a decent knock and Shaheen Afridi scored a valiant unbeaten 23, but Pakistan never threatened and ended up losing comfortably against India.
Suryakumar Yadav and his troops have now extended their T20 World Cup lead to 8-1, and have qualified for the Super Eight stages.
"I think this is for India. We played the same brand of cricket what we wanted to play. Batting first was better option on this wicket. We'll go back, have a good time together as a team and then think about the other games when we take the flight to Ahmedabad," Surya said after the match.
India vs Pakistan - What's Next?
Both India and Pakistan play on Wednesday against Netherlands and Namibia respectively. For Pakistan, a defeat against Namibia will mean curtains in the T20 World Cup.
