Asia Cup: Ravindra Jadeja, Hardik Pandya blitz and bowlers take India to a memorable victory

A great bowling performance followed by great knocks from Ravindra Jadeja and Hardik Pandya took India to a 5-wicket victory against arch rivals Pakistan and got their first points on the board. To everyone’s surprise, India made a big statement by dropping Rishabh Pant and giving the gloves to Dinesh Karthik. India just had one left-handed batter in their top 7. Pakistan’s supremely talented Naseem Shah made his debut in the high-pressure game. India after winning the toss, put on Pakistan to bat in a bowling friendly wicket

Pakistan got off to a sloppy start as Mohammad Rizwan survived a leg before shout in the very first over. India used a short ball ploy against the Pakistan batters. The first batter to fall was Babar Azam who lost his wicket to Bhuvneshwar Kumar to a very good bouncer. Avesh Khan got the key wicket of Fakhar Zaman in his first over. Mohammad Rizwan and Iftikhar Ahmed built a solid partnership of 45 runs. Pandya broke the partnership with a sharp bouncer. Iftikhar Ahmed contributed with a valuable knock of 28 runs. Mohammad Rizwan played a slow yet an anchoring knock of 43 runs before losing his wicket to Hardik Pandya with a short delivery. Hardik Pandya and India had been ruthless with the short ball picking 5 wickets with it. The Pakistan innings never really accelerated from there courtesy great death bowling from Arshdeep Singh and Bhuvneshwar Kumar picking up regular wickets. Pakistan slumped losing wickets in the death overs. A crucial 9th wicket partnership of 19 runs put Pakistan to a fighting total of 147. All the 10 wickets were taken by the fast bowlers. Bhuvneshwar Kumar starred with 4 wickets. Hardik Pandya took 3 crucial wickets to his name. Arshdeep Singh and Avesh Khan took 2 wickets and 1 wicket to their name respectively.

Chasing 148, India had a massive blow losing KL Rahul in the first over. Pakistan was steaming in the powerplay bowling great lengths. Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli build a solid partnership of 49 runs. India faced a huge setback as Mohammed Nawaz picked up wickets of Rohit Sharma and Kohli in his back-to-back overs. Virat Kohli showed glimpses of form scoring a valuable 35. Suryakumar Yadav and Ravindra Jadeja got a partnership of 36 runs and set the base for the death overs.

Ravindra Jadeja and Hardik Pandya never let the required run rate creep up. They played sensible cricket, rotating singles and getting the crucial boundaries. The turning point of the game was when Hardik Pandya smashed 3 boundaries off Haris Rauf in the penultimate over. He sealed the game for India with ease. Mohammad Nawaz got 3 wickets with the ball and Debutant Naseem Shah picked up 2 wickets. A clinical performance from the bowlers and the finishers took India to a 5-wicket victory and India got off the mark in the Asia Cup 2022. Hardik Pandya was adjudged man of the match for his all-round performance.