ICC Men's T20 World Cup: India thrash Pakistan by 6 runs at Nassau County International Cricket Stadium

New York: Indian bowlers produced excelent performance on a tricky pitch to give India 6-run win against Pakistan in the high-voltage Group A clash of T20 World Cup at the Nassau County International Cricket Stadium on Sunday.

Defending only 119, Indian bowlers put pressure on Pakistani batters right from the beginning. Captain Babar Azam, Usman Khan and Fakhar Zaman went back after scoring 13 each. Mohammad Rizwan (31 runs from 44 balls) played sensible cricket, but he was bowled by Jasprit Bumrah when they needed 40 runs from 6 overs.

Pakistan finally managed 113 in allotted overs losing 7 wickets.

Bumrah claimed 3 wickets for 14 in his spell while Hardik Pandya took two.

Earlier, fast bowlers Naseem Shah and Haris Rauf took identical figures of 3-21 as Pakistan bowled out India for just 119 in 19 overs.

On a tricky pitch where ball stopped on batters occasionally, only three batters reached double figures for India, as Rishabh Pant top-scored with 42 off 31 balls in his largely charmed life at the crease, where his trademark unorthodox shots got him better returns than orthodox strokes.

At one point, India were comfortably placed at 89/3 in 11 overs, before they dramatically lost the plot. Naseem, Haris and Mohammad Amir triggered an epic collapse with their brilliant bowling as India lost their last seven wickets for just 30 runs. In a bid to attack in the middle overs, India lost batters due to poor shots and kept picking out fielders, which meant they couldn’t stitch partnerships.

After 30 minutes of delay due to rain, Rohit Sharma began the proceedings by flicking Shaheen Shah Afridi off his wrists for a magnificent six. Rain came back to halt India’s innings at eight for no loss in the first over and after 29 minutes, Virat Kohli got going with a creaming cover drive for four.

But Kohli chased a wide delivery from Naseem, and picked out point. In the next over, Rohit miscued a pick-up shot off Shaheen and was caught by deep square leg. Amir beat Axar Patel's outside edge thrice in as many balls, before the batter cut and ramped Shaheen for four and six respectively.

On the other hand, luck favoured Pant heavily – a healthy outside edge went past Iftikhar Ahmed at slip for four off Amir. Immediately after, a top-edge on his wristy flick was dropped by Usman Khan at cover and Pant’s attempt to drive again took an outside edge flying over Iftikhar for four more, as India ended a dramatic power-play at 50/2.

Axar skipped down the pitch to drive over Iftikhar’s head for four, but in a bid to repeat that shot against Naseem, he completely missed the ball and was castled. Pant again survived on 17 when Usman shelled a chance to catch his top-edge on the slog-sweep off Imad Wasim.

But from the 10th over off Haris, things changed dramatically for Pant. He lofted a slower ball over mid-off, fell over to paddle over short fine leg and flicked in the same region to pick a hat-trick of fours, followed by a lovely reverse-sweep off Imad to pick another boundary.

But Pakistan bounced back as Suryakumar Yadav picked out mid-off against Amir and Shivam Dube chipped a simple catch to Naseem off his own bowling. Amir had Pant finally running out of luck when his miscued loft was caught by mid-off moving to his left and Ravindra Jadeja chipped straight to short mid-off on consecutive deliveries.

Pakistan ensured India didn’t get to close their innings well as Rauf got Hardik Pandya flicking to deep backward square leg and had Jasprit Bumrah hit straight to short cover on consecutive balls. Arshdeep Singh’s run-out by Babar Azam ensured India’s innings ended with one over unused.

Brief Scores: India 119 in 19 overs (Rishabh Pant 42; Naseem Shah 3-21, Haris Rauf 3-21) beat Pakistan 113/7 in 20 overs (Mohammad Rizwan 31, Bumrah 3/14, Pandya 2/24). Agencies

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