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And that will be that! From turning weathermen for large parts of this contest in between being your ball-by-ball commentators, we've seen quite a couple of days. The contest wasn't quite as thrilling but it does throw this Asia Cup wide open. A huge shoutout of our own to the groundsmen of the R Premadasa Stadium who are the sole reason we've seen this match witness a result! They'll be on their toes again tomorrow when Sri Lanka face India but let's hope the weather Gods are kind enough to give them a day off and we witness uninterrupted action throughout. For the moment, this is the duo of Rajarshi Das and Sooryanarayanan Sesha taking your leave on behalf of the entire team at Sportskeeda. Thank you so much for being a patient audience throughout these two days. See you again tomorrow - good night and take care!
With the bat, ball and on the field, India were at their dominant best throughout these two days. They made an early statement against Pakistan's famed pace troika and never looked back thereon. And it's a resounding win that puts them on the cusp of making the final should they win over Sri Lanka tomorrow. Yup, that's how tough the schedule is - the Men in Blue have to do it all over again in a matter of a few hours. As for Pakistan, it was a match to forget. A real hammering if there ever was one and they'll certainly want to put this behind them soon before their must-win encounter against Sri Lanka on Thursday. Oh and they'd certainly want to look after a few of their wounded players as well alright!
It was the first of five rapid wickets for Kuldeep Yadav! And he brought Fakhar Zaman's painstaking innings to an end by castling him. Here's a watch on the same!👇
Virat Kohli is the Player Of The Match! Here's what he has to say: I always prepare my game in the way that I can help the team in different ways, you don't get off to the start as you want to at times. KL got off to a great start, he was hitting boundaries. My job was to rotate strike. Because I crossed the hundred, there was a bit of respect on that shot (the reverse lap sweep). I don't play those shots, I look bad playing them. KL and I are both conventional cricketers, we don't try fancy stuff. We can get a lot of purchase through good cricket shots. The partnership between me and KL was great, and these are good signs for Indian cricket. Great to see Rahul come back to ODI cricket the way he did today. (On the runs between the wickets) I was pushing for those runs and I'm happy for it, but I had in mind that I need to play at 3 pm tomorrow. We are Test cricketers, so I know how to come back and play the next day. It was really humid out there. I'm 35 in November, so I need to be taking care of that recovery as well. A big shout out to the groundsmen from my side, they did a fabulous job.
Rohit Sharma, India captain: We just wanted to get on the park, to get some game time. We've been talking about it. Lots of guys have had no game time. That could only happen due to the groundsmen, they've been onto it from the word go, it is really tough to cover the entire ground as quickly as they did and do it again the next day. We would like to thank them on behalf of the team. It's not easy, we've seen them, ensure that the game happens for us, it was very much possible because of them. It was a fantastic batting performance right from yesterday (smiles), usually, it doesn't happen. When we started off, we knew the wicket was good. We had to adjust with the breaks. Once our two set batters got their eye in, both Virat and KL were on top. Bumrah looked good, he swung the ball both ways, he has worked really hard for the last 15-18 months. Bumrah's only 27 at this point, for him to come back and the way he bowled showed what Bumrah is all about. There was a lot of positives with the way we batted, it was a typical Kohli innings, and very pleased with KL. Last minute change, never really knows when he gets to play, just before 5 minutes of the toss we told him he was going to play. To come out and bat like that on short notice shows the quality and mindset of the player.
Babar Azam (Pakistan captain): We were not up to the mark in the bowling and batting. They planned well and attacked our bowlers. Virat Kohli played really well. When we were batting Jasprit and Siraj bowled really well and swung it both ways. We were not up to the mark and we didn't build partnerships.
Let's hear from Kuldeep Yadav: Very happy at the moment. Just the consistency from the last one to one and a half years (has worked). I've got the rhythm back and am bowling more aggressive so really happy. It's good to pick five wickets. Whenever I got four wickets, I never thought about picking the fifth one. At that moment I was thinking about bowling a good length and that's really helping me a lot. Whenever you get a five-fer be it in ODIs, Tests or T20s it feels really good. (The dismissal of Fakhar Zaman) I had my plans ready - whenever you play against a top side you have to be ready. I've played against them in 2019. I know most of the guys and how they play spin. I'm just focusing on my variations. I'm just working on my length and at the same time focusing on bowling wicket-to-wicket. Whenever you play a good spin side they will try to sweep or slog sweep. You get a chance to take a wicket.
A dominant, telling display from India over their arch-rivals see them move close to a berth in the final one game into the super fours. A target of 357 was always going to be steep given the conditions and the weather. The Indian bowlers them went on to extinguish any possibilities of an improbable task - first with pace and swing in the powerplay, and then, the spin duo of Kuldeep and Jadeja took over. The former ended with 5 scalps to his name, and was instrumental in wrapping the game up as quickly as it did.
Even with the knowledge of the threat possessed by the likes of Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj, the Pakistan top-order probably didn't have the slightest idea of what they were about to go up against. We probably saw more plays and misses than the two Indian innings against Pakistan in this Asia Cup, combined together! The entire cricket ground seemed to behave differently in the second innings, which, again is a testament to the sheer quality of knocks from the Indian batters throughout the couple of days.
Bumrah and Siraj made the ball talk - Imam-ul-Haq and Fakhar Zaman looked to see off the danger with the new ball, but a wicket seemed inevitable. Imam nicked off to an absolute peach from Bumrah four overs in, and the Men In Green were on the back foot right away. Babar, along with a hapless Fakhar Zaman, looked to steady the ship, but was undone by a skiddy length delivery from Hardik Pandya off the first over of the all-rounder.
Rain intervened for quite a while after that, and probably, the entirety of Pakistan were in hope of a washout with the flow of proceedings. But it was not to be - the ground-staff in Sri Lanka were at the top of their game throughout the two days, and they mopped things up with plenty of time to spare. Out came the players, and there was no change in proceedings. Shardul Thakur had Rizwan nick behind with one that left him, and from then on, it was the spinners who were to rule the roost.
The wicket seemed to be of aid to the pacers, but as soon as Kuldeep Yadav and Ravindra Jadeja came on, it turned back to the traditional Sri Lankan turners. Both the left-arm spinners made utmost use of it - while Jadeja played the role of stemming the runs from one end, Kuldeep, with his enticing, three-way spinning deliveries, ran right through the Pakistan line-up over one straight spell of 8 overs!
The Pakistan batters looked to defend, at times they looked to attack, but there was absolutely no way out for them as Kuldeep Yadav ran through them. Kuldeep opened his wickets column with a generously floated delivery to Fakhar, who swung all around it and made it out of his misery. Iftikhar and Agha Salman looked to consolidate for a while before Salman was caught in front by a quicker one four overs later. With the outcome of the game seemingly decided, Kuldeep accounted for Shadab Khan by getting him to hole out, Iftikhar Ahmed with a sharp return catch, and Faheem Ashraf with the slider.
India march to the top of the super fours table with a thoroughly sumptuous win, ticking plenty of boxes while at it. With a Net Run Rate of +4.56, a spot in the final seems to be in the bag. However, they have another game - against Sri Lanka - in just over 15 hours. While there's little to no time for recovery, they'll look to treat this like a Test match and carry the momentum from this game, while ensuring some rest for a couple of their key players as well.
32
overs
128/8score
0
6
1
0
0
W
runs
Faheem Ashraf*
4(12)
Shaheen Afridi
7(6)
Kuldeep Yadav
5/25
31.6 Kuldeep Yadav to Faheem Ashraf, CASTLED! FIVE FOR KULDEEP! And it's all over since neither Naseem nor Haris are fit to bat. Drifting into a good length at the stumps as it skids through the surface. Faheem hangs back in his crease but is beaten for pace as the ball rushes through to disturb the bails. A magnificent spell from Kuldeep and it caps off a dominant couple of days for the Men in Blue. India win by a massive 228 runs!
Faheem Ashraf b Kuldeep Yadav 4 (12b, 0x4, 0x6)
31.5 Kuldeep Yadav to Faheem Ashraf, OH! Stifled shouts as Kuldeep flights it into a back of a length radar on middle and leg stump. Faheem hangs back and chunks his bat down close to his pad before it takes a bit of inside edge
31.4 Kuldeep Yadav to Faheem Ashraf, full and flighted at the stumps. Faheem comes forward and defends it into the pitch
31.3 Kuldeep Yadav to Shaheen Afridi, BURSTS THROUGH! Turns away off a back of a length radar on off stump. Afridi backs away to flat-bat it with the spin as it bursts through Kuldeep's fingertips as he reaches for it. Single down to long off
31.2 Kuldeep Yadav to Shaheen Afridi, MOUSSED FOR SIX! In the arc as it is flighted into leg stump. Afridi clears his front leg and launches it a mile over long on. Real muscle on that as it sails the distance
31.1 Kuldeep Yadav to Shaheen Afridi, full outside the off stump. Out comes an attempted reverse-sweep but Afridi can't put bat to ball
A tidy first over from Shardul in his second spell.
31
overs
121/7score
0
2
0
0
0
0
runs
Faheem Ashraf*
4(9)
Shaheen Afridi
0(3)
Shardul Thakur
1/16
30.6 Shardul Thakur to Faheem Ashraf, length delivery angling into the stumps. Thuds into the pads of Faheem who fails to get bat on his attempted tuck through the leg-side
30.5 Shardul Thakur to Faheem Ashraf, OH! Angles it into a length outside the off stump. Faheem attempts a punch but it keeps low to beat the bat