India won by 5 wickets in Asia Cup defeating Pakistan over 2 balls left, Hardik Pandya finishes in Style!
Ravindra Jadeja is down for a quick chat, Jadeja says that Pakistan had a very good bowling attack, they were not giving anything away. Adds that he could have finished the game as he was against a left-arm spinner.
When asked about Hardik Pandya he says that he knew Pandya had to still till the end and he played his shots well in the end.
Earlier in the game, Rohit Sharma won the toss and opted to bowl first which proved to be the right decision. The pitch had good bounce and carry and the Indian pacers made the most of it as all of them got onto the wickets column.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar picked up 4 and Hardik Pandya 3 wickets. Mohammad Rizwan notched up some important runs for Pakistan and in the end, it was the tailender Shahnawaz Dahani who hit a couple of lusty blows to get them close to the 150-run mark.
After a sedate start, India did well not to lose too many wickets and a blistering knock of 33 from just 17 balls by Hardik Pandya sealed the deal for India. An absolute thriller.
Pakistan will feel hard done by that loss but truth be told, their bowlers showed real fight. The score on the board wasn't high but the pacers started off well. Naseem Shah, on debut was phenomenal and the others gave him ample support. One thing though was that the other pacers just couldn't pick up wickets.
It was really Mohammad Nawaz in the middle overs who did the job of picking up wickets and gave his team the platform to go on and get the win. The lack of wickets did hurt them in the end and Nawaz, the left-arm spinner was asked to defend just 6 in the final over. He did get a wicket but it was a job that proved to be a bit too difficult.
India didn't have the ideal start as KL Rahul was dismissed in the very first over. After that, it was Virat Kohli who got a few boundaries under his belt and kept the scoreboard ticking. Kohli and Rohit both fell in quick succession and Ravindra Jadeja then held onto one end.
With balls running out, Hardik Pandya showed his muscle and in the penultimate over got the boundaries. Hardik then rounded off a brilliant all-round performance as he finished things off with a maximum and opened India's account in the Asia Cup.
What a game we have just witnessed here! This one kept the fans engrossed till the very end but it is India who have just been able to get over the line and get a big victory over arch-rivals Pakistan.