Asia Cup, 2018: 5 unnoticed things from the India-Pakistan game

It was the clash that cricket fans from all over the world were waiting for. India took on Pakistan in front of a capacity crowd at the Dubai International Stadium. Sarfraz Khan chose to bat first after winning the toss but Pakistan was rattled early by some disciplined bowling from India’s opening bowlers. Babar Azam and Shoaib Malik stitched together an 82-run partnership for the 3rd wicket but once Babar fell to Kuldeep Yadav, a procession followed as Pakistan kept on losing wickets at regular intervals before being finally dismissed for the score of 162.

In reply, India got off to a flier courtesy a fine fifty by captain Rohit Sharma. Both Rohit and Shikhar felt in quick succession but a sensible partnership between Ambati Rayudu and Dinesh Karthik ensured that there were no more hiccups as India cruised home with 21 overs still remaining. We take a look at some things that the fans might have missed from the game.

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#1 Fakhar Zaman’s first duck in ODIs

Fakhar Zaman was the star of the show when Pakistan beat India in the final of the ICC Champions Trophy last year. The Pakistani opener has been in sizzling form this year as well, smashing a double hundred against Zimbabwe. Naturally, there were a lot of expectations from Zaman by the Pakistani fans.

However, the stylish left-hander failed to get going. India’s fast bowlers bowled a tight line to Zaman and denied him any sort of room to free his arms. Zaman played out eight dot balls before spooning an easy catch to Yuzvendra Chahal who made no mistake. It was Zaman’s first duck in One Day Internationals.

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#2 Bhuvneshwar’s economical spell

Bhuvneshwar Kumar has been going through a lean patch for quite some time now. He did not have the best of the times in the limited-overs leg of India’s tour of England. He, later on, picked up a lower back injury and was ruled out of the Tests. In the previous game against minnows Hong Kong as well, Bhuvi went wicketless and conceded 50 runs.

Keeping the recent setbacks behind him, Bhuvi bowled an exceptional spell upfront to rattle Pakistan. In his opening spell, Bhuvi conceded just 15 runs and picked up the wickets of both the Pakistani openers. He returned in the death overs to pick up the wicket of Hasan Ali as well. While Jadhav’s 3-wicket haul grabbed all the headlines, it was Bhuvneshwar’s terrific spell upfront that laid the foundation of India’s victory.

#3 Manish Pandey’s brilliant catch

Manish Pandey has been in cracking form with the bat. He piled up runs for India B in the recently concluded Quadrangular series. However, Manish was been left out of the first two ODIs in the Asia Cup in favor of Ambati Rayudu. Manish is not only a handy bat down the order but is arguably India’s best fielder.

Brought on to the field in place of the injured Hardik Pandya, Manish produced a moment of magic to send Pakistani captain Sarfraz Khan back to the dressing room. Sarfraz tried to up the scoring rate by launching into the part-timer Kedhar Jadhav. Sarfraz made a decent connection with the willow but a superb effort from Pandey at wide long-on led to his demise. Pandey covered a great distance to his right at the edge of the boundary, got both hands on the ball but was about to go over the ropes. He did that too, but by throwing the ball inside just in time, and then came back inside the field of play to grab it again.

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#4 Rohit Sharma’s 100th innings as an opener

It was a special day for Rohit Sharma as not only he got to captain an India-Pakistan game but it was also his 100th innings as an opener in ODI cricket. Rohit celebrated the occasion in style by completing a blistering half-century against the arch-rivals.

Rohit had a struggling start to his international career and failed to cement his place in the Indian team. It was only when he started opening the innings for India that success came his way. The Mumbai lad has a healthy average of 54 while opening the innings and has 16 ODI hundreds to his name as an opener. Such has been his transformation that Rohit is arguably the most destructive opener in one-day cricket today.

#5 Rohit Sharma- 294 matches and 294 sixes in international cricket

Rohit Sharma is the biggest hitter of the cricket ball in the Indian team. When the “Hitman” gets going, he can clear any ground in the world. The ease with which Rohit can clear the boundary ropes is ridiculous. Today as well, Rohit looked in the mood before getting out to Shadab Khan.

Rohit smashed 3 sixes today, all via a pull shot to send the Indian contingent in the crowd into raptures. With these 3 sixes, Rohit’s international sixes tally went up to 294, just 6 short of 300. Incidentally, it was also Rohit’s 294th game at the international level. Rohit is second on the list of Indians with most sixes at the international level. Only M.S Dhoni is ahead of Rohit on the list.