DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — India held its nerve in the last over to win cricket’s Asia Cup for the ninth time with a five-wicket victory over archrival Pakistan in Sunday’s final with only two balls remaining.
In the final twist of an occasionally troubled tournament, the Indian team declined to receive the trophy and winners’ medals from Mohsin Naqvi — head of the Pakistan Cricket Board and Asian Cricket Council, and also Pakistan's interior
minister — and the tournament ended without either presentation.
Tilak Varma scored 69 not out for India off 53 balls, including a crucial six against Haris Rauf in the 20th over.
Rinku Singh hit the winning runs with a four — the only ball Singh faced in the entire tournament.
Put into bat, Pakistan had earlier collapsed from 113-1 to 146 all out in 19.1 overs at Dubai International Cricket Stadium.
That looked like being enough after defending champion India’s terrible start to its innings, dropping to 20-3 after four overs, including the prized wicket of Abhishek Sharma (5).
But Varma and Shivam Dube (33) led the recovery as India reached 150-5 in 19.4 overs.
Varma added 57 off 50 balls with Sanju Samson (24) but the game-changing partnership was between Varma and Dube (33 off 22 balls). The duo added 60 off 40 balls to snatch the game out of Pakistan’s hands.
It was India’s second T20 Asia Cup victory after 2016, and ninth overall since 1984, across formats.
This was the first India-Pakistan final in Asia Cup history, which started in 1984. The two sides had already met twice earlier in this tournament – in group play and Super Four — both won comfortably by India.
India’s cricketers refused to shake hands with Pakistan after both those games and there were no handshakes at Sunday’s toss or at the end of the game.
India’s chase got off to the worst possible start with a rare failure for aggressive opener Sharma. He was out caught for five off Faheem Ashraf.
Ashraf struck again to send back Shubman Gill for 12, while Shaheen Afridi got rid of skipper Suryakumar Yadav for just one.
Yadav’s miserable tournament ended with a total of 72 runs, while Sharma finished as the top run-scorer – 314 runs in seven innings at average 44.85 and strike-rate 200.
“It was not easy breaking into a T20 World Cup-winning team, but I backed myself," Sharma said. “More importantly, the captain and coach have backed me.”
But India was in deep trouble at 36-3 in the powerplay. Varma and Samson calmly rebuilt the innings without taking unnecessary risks. Samson faced 21 deliveries and only hit one six.
Samson was out in the 13th over, caught off spinner Abrar Ahmed, leaving India still needing another partnership.
Varma and Dube met the challenge. Dube hit two sixes and two fours, while Varma reached 50 off 41 balls.
Overall, Varma hit three fours and four sixes. He stayed calm even when Dube was out in the penultimate over.
Rauf bowled the final over with India needing 10 more runs for victory, and Varma got eight of them off the first two balls – including his fourth six. Singh then finished off with two balls to spare.
“It was a pressure situation but I just wanted to bat till the end,” Varma said. “They were mixing up the pace and bowling well. Sanju (Samson) was fantastic and Shivam (Dube) was helpful under pressure. I was backing my game and wanted to finish for my country.”
Earlier, Pakistan fumbled a great start and lost its last nine wickets for 33 runs in 39 deliveries.
Sahibzada Farhan (57 runs in 38 balls) and Fakhar Zaman (46 in 35) had given Pakistan a solid start at 84-0 but No. 3 Saim Ayub (14) was the only other Pakistan batter to reach double figures. Farhan hit five fours and three sixes.
Left-arm wrist spinner Kuldeep Yadav took 4-30 in four overs. Jasprit Bumrah, Varun Chakravarthy and Axar Patel claimed two wickets each.
Bumrah claimed the last wicket as Pakistan’s innings ended in 19.1 overs.
Pakistan had enjoyed the powerplay – scoring 45 without loss — and was 87-1 at the halfway point.
Kuldeep Yadav broke the back of Pakistan’s innings, dismissing Salman Agha (8), Shaheen Afridi (0) and Ashraf (0) as the lower-middle order wilted under pressure. The turning point had come when Zaman was out caught in the 15th over against Chakravarthy.
The presentation ceremony was delayed for an hour after the final ball.
The Pakistan team collected its individual medals. Tilak Varma and Abhishek Sharma collected their individual awards – player of the match and tournament, respectively — but not from Naqvi.
There was a further delay owing to media reports that the Indian team had refused to accept the trophy from Naqvi.
“Ladies and gentlemen, I have been informed by the ACC that the Indian cricket team will not be collecting their awards tonight. So that does conclude the post-match presentation,” presenter Simon Doull announced.
The Indian team celebrated and posed for photographers – without their medals or the trophy.
The Asia Cup has marked a resumption of cricket ties between India and Pakistan only months after the neighboring countries were engaged in a tense border situation in May that disrupted the IPL and the Pakistan Super League.
There were no handshakes at Sunday’s toss where India skipper Suryakumar Yadav spoke with former India cricketer-turned-broadcaster Ravi Shastri and Pakistan captain Agha talked with former Pakistan cricketer-turned-broadcaster Waqar Younis.
___
AP cricket: https://apnews.com/hub/cricket
