Surgical Strike: India beats Pakistan by 7 wickets in Asia Cup

India dominated Pakistan with disciplined spin bowling and a swift chase in a tense Asia Cup match. Spinners starred as Pakistan were restricted to 127, and Indian batters finished the job effortlessly

Dubai: Kuldeep Yadav’s craft and Axar Patel’s discipline were beyond comprehension for a clueless group of Pakistani batters as India displayed absolute dominance to register a convincing seven-wicket victory in a lopsided Asia Cup match here on Sunday.

Despite calls for boycotting the match from certain quarters as a mark of protest for the Pahalgam terror attack in April, a near full-capacity crowd — dominated by 85 percent Indian fans — witnessed a clinical decimation of Pakistan, one ball at a time.

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And to rub it in, neither at the toss nor at the end of the match did the Indian players shake hands with their counterparts from Pakistan, even as they waited in a queue moments after skipper Suryakumar Yadav sealed the issue with a six.

Spinners Axar (2/18 in 4 overs), Kuldeep (3/18 in 4 overs), and Varun (1/24 in 4 overs) were immaculate in terms of line and length, as none of the Pakistani batters showed the wherewithal to play the troika from their hands.

The result was a lowly 127 for nine from Pakistan — at least 50 runs below par.

In reply, Abhishek Sharma (31 off 13 balls) flayed their biggest bowling hope, Shaheen Shah Afridi (0/23 in 2 overs), with utter disdain, while Suryakumar celebrated his 35th birthday with a fine 47 not out off 37 balls in a chase that was completed in just 15.5 overs.

Suryakumar finished it off in style and then walked straight back to the dug-out without shaking hands with the Pakistan players on the field.

The match was effectively won in the first innings itself when Axar, Kuldeep, and Varun delivered 40 dot balls between them and cumulatively took 6 for 60 in their 12 overs.

Add another 15 dot balls from Jasprit Bumrah (2/28 in 4 overs), and one can understand the plight of the Pakistani batters, who played dot balls worth 10.1 overs.

Bumrah’s greatness could be gauged by the fact that on the day he was hit for his first six in a limited overs international (T20Is and ODIs combined) by a Pakistani batter — after sending down 400 legal deliveries.

Had Shaheen Shah Afridi (33 not out off 16 balls) not used the long handle, the score wouldn’t have gone past 125.

During the chase, Abhishek deflated Pakistani hopes with a straight boundary and then a couple of sixes to up the ante.

Even after Shubman Gill (10) was quickly dismissed and Abhishek departed inside the fourth over, Suryakumar and Tilak Varma (31 off 31 balls) didn’t look in any hurry while adding 56 runs for the third wicket.

Earlier, Suryakumar lost the toss, didn’t shake hands with his counterpart Salman Ali Agha, but never lost the plot as the opposition batters were all at sea from the very first legal delivery — when the highly rated Saim Ayub (0) slashed one off Hardik Pandya (1/34 in 3 overs) to Bumrah at point.

Bumrah, in the next over, got last match’s top scorer Mohammad Haris (3), who tried a pick-up pull shot. This time, Pandya returned the favour to India’s lead pacer by taking a well-judged catch in the fine leg region.

Sahibzada Farhan (40 off 44 balls) did hit Bumrah for a couple of sixes but largely couldn’t read any of the Indian spinners as dot balls accumulated by the dozen.

It was not just poor shot selection but also lack of technique that troubled the Pakistan batters against the world’s top spinners.

Only Fakhar Zaman (17 off 15 balls) could be excused for taking risks against Axar, as he has had a good career match-up against slow left-arm orthodox bowlers.

Moments after Axar was brought into the attack, Fakhar went for the jugular and was caught at long-on by Tilak Varma.

Since they were unable to read the Indian wrist spinners from their hands, the Pakistani batters went for the obvious but high-risk option of playing the slog sweep. Both skipper Salman (3 off 12 balls) and the hard-hitting Hasan Nawaz tried to hit out of trouble without gauging the length and extra bounce.

The left-handed Mohammad Nawaz found Kuldeep’s googly too hot to handle.

Farhan, who not once dominated the spinners, holed out in the deep off Kuldeep as Pakistan’s woes against India in multilateral events continued.