Team India retained the Asia Cup title with their 5-wicket win over Pakistan at the United Arab Emirates on Sunday as the men in blue chased down the target of 147 runs with a couple of deliveries to spare.
Former Indian all-rounder Irfan Pathan took a dig at Pakistan following the victory, calling the neighbours out for their uncharacteristic silence following the conclusion of the game.
“SUNDAY KESA RAHA PADOSIYON? Mein janta hoo. Awaz vese bhi Nahi aa Rahi.
“How did your Sunday go, neighbours?” Pathan’s post read.
“I know. No sound coming out as such,” the former pacer added.
India won the toss and elected to bowl first. Pakistan began strongly with Shahibzada Farhan and Fakhar Zaman putting up 84 runs for the first wicket. Varun Chakravarthy dismissed Farhan after he scored 57 runs off 38 deliveries, reaching his half-century.
Saim Ayub added 14 runs before being dismissed by Kuldeep Yadav. Mohamed Haris was out for a duck, taken by Axar Patel. Chakravarthy then removed Zaman for 46 runs, and Patel dismissed Hussain Talat for a single run.
Salman Ali Aga was dismissed by Kuldeep for 8 runs, who also took the wicket of Shaheen Afridi for a duck. Yadav completed his four-fer by removing Faheem Ashraf for a duck. Jasprit Bumrah dismissed Haris Rauf for 6 runs and concluded Pakistan’s innings by taking the wicket of Mohammed Nawaz, who also scored 6 runs.
India did not start well; Abhishek Sharma was dismissed by Ashraf for 5 runs, and skipper Suryakumar Yadav was out for 1 run, taken by Afridi. Ashraf struck again, removing Shubman Gill for 12 runs, while Abrar Ahmed dismissed Sanju Samson for 24 runs.
Tilak Varma and Shivam Dube stabilized the chase with a 60-run partnership before Dube was dismissed for 33 runs by Ashraf. Rinku Singh joined Varma, and together they remained unbeaten on 4 and 69 runs respectively, closing out the chase with two balls to spare.
