Asia Cup 2018: 3 Talking points from India vs Pakistan

The much-awaited match of the 2018 Asia Cup between India and Pakistan finally concluded on the matchday 5 of the competition. The day before the game against Pakistan, India locked horns with Hong Kong where subcontinent avoided a shock defeat against Hong Kong.

India's encounter against Pakistan was the first after a span of 15 months. The meeting between the two Asian heavyweights was one-sided in which India easily defeated their arch-rivals Pakistan by eight wickets. India finally took their revenge against Pakistan for their loss against Pakistan in 2017 Champions Trophy final.

Pakistan's batting line-up crumbled and was not able to go past 200 mark. India bowled out entire Pakistan team for 162. In reply to Pakistan's 162, India reached the target in less than 30 overs which was quite impressive.

Here are the three talking points from the game:

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#1 Early Pakistan wickets set the tone for India

Bhuvaneshwar Kumar grabbed early wickets

The main reason for India eliminating Pakistan at the mere scoreline at 162 was the early wickets taken by Bhuvaneshwar Kumar of Imam-ul-Haq and Fakhar Zaman. Fakhar Zaman was the main reason why India lost against Pakistan in the Champions Trophy final of 2018 edition.

Zaman scored a century when the two teams met last in Champions Trophy 2017 Final. Two early wickets helped Indian bowlers gain the required confidence which made the task easier for the other wickets.

The game could have gone the other way if Pakistan would have not lost the early wickets. It was the first time that Fakhar Zaman was bowled for a duck. If Pakistan succeeded in adding 50 or more runes to their tally, it would have been not much easy for team India as it was.

#2 Indian bowling unit impressed

Kedar Jadhav surprised everyone with his bowling.

Not many would have thought the encounter between two rivals would be such a one-sided one. Indian bowlers surprised the entire cricket fraternity with their mind-boggling performance in their second encounter of the Asian Cup. Fears among the Indian fans were blooming after the after the Cricketing giants narrowly escaped the defeat against Hong Kong in their previous Asian Cup encounter.

The Indians fans will be very happy with the way the entire team played. Bhuvaneshvar Kumar was impressive and took three wickets of which first two were the most important.

The partnership between Shoaib Malik and Babar Azam was proving to be the threat for India which was broken by the left arm chinaman bowler Kuldeep Yadav.

Kedar Jadhav, on the other hand, took another three wickets which sealed the deal for India.

Indian fans will hope that the team delivers in the same manner when they meet arch-rivals again on 23rd September in the Super Four round of the competition.

#3 Pakistan bowlers performed poorly

Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan set the game for team India.

Even if India had a target of only 163, we know how tough its to bat against Pakistani bowlers. Pakistan has some of the best fast bowlers in World Cricket. India was bowled at just 158 in their last encounter against Pakistan in final of Champions trophy last year.

A quickfire half-century from Rohit Sharma made the way for India's win in their second Asia Cup encounter. Dhawan's contribution should not be neglected as maintaining the partnership in such an important game is of utmost importance.