A Rivalry as Old As Time
Few entities fight over each other for as long as they have. Even fewer have it as rough and fiercely fought as these two . India and Pakistan have forever been intertwined throughout their independent history , and the most peaceful yet fierce form of this rivalry manifests in cricket .
As the Asia cup starts , arguably the marquee match is set as the opener . India won the toss and chose to bowl first . The decision proved to be quite spot on as India kept taking regular wickets , save for the opener Rizwan . The pace duo of Bhuvaneshwar Kumar and Hardik Pandya kept the explosive batting of Pakistan at bay , taking 7 wickets between them and effectively drying the opponent team of runs . Forced to take big shots , only a few of them connected , as Pakistan was not even able to keep at a run rate of 7 until the penultimate over . Down 9 wickets with 9 balls remaining , not even Pakistan thought that they would keep a defendable target . Enter the last batsman S Dahani . Primarily a bowler , he hit 2 Sixes to catapult Pakistan to 147 at the end of the innings . While not a satisfactory target , the detoriating pitch helped the Pakistan bowlers make it a close game .
And a close game it was . India started off uncharacteristically slow , with KL Rahul returning after 2 balls and Rohit Sharma getting out for 12 in 18 balls . The bowlers were not releasing their pressure either . Shadab Khan had a stellar 4 overs , while taking no wickets , he only gave 19 runs . While India was losing wickets slower than Pakistan , they were also scoring at a lesser rate . When Suryakumar Yadav got out for a-run-a-ball 18 , India needed 59 of 34 balls , almost needing to score 10.5 runs per over from then on . After Suryakumar got out , the all-rounders Jadeja and Hardik Pandya took charge .
Jadeja maintained a stoic presence , rotating the strike and giving the hard-hitting Hardik Pandya the balls to hit . And hit he did . Hardik Pandya continued his form from the previous innings , scoring 33 in 17 balls ,always taking runs and carrying the team over the finish line near the end . 21 required off the final 12 balls , Hardik Pandya hit 12 runs ( and taking a single each with Jadeja ) , to reduce the equation to 7 off the final over . Mohammed Nawaz got Jadeja out on the first , conceded a single and then got an important dot ball from Pandya . 6 to score from 3 , Nawaz bowled one loose and fast , and Hardik slammed it for a 6 .
While this match was not as special as their previous encounters in the world cups or Champions trophy , it was still an exhilarating match to follow and see , where the winner was decided in the last over itself .If these two teams advance forward into the finals , look forward to another great match between these two countries yet again.
Have a great week ahead !