Virat Kohli and Hardik Pandya helped India defeat Pakistan in the Super 12 match of the T20 World Cup 2022 edition. The match went all the way down to the last delivery as India got snatched a victory from the jaws of defeat!
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| Image Credits: News9 Live |
Toss Update: India won the toss and opted to field first.
After being sent into bat first, Pakistan scored 159 on the board losing 8 wickets in 20 overs. Shan Masood (52 off 42) and Iftikhar Ahmed (51 off 34) scored half-centuries each. Shaheen Shah Afridi (16 off 8) at no. 9 was the only other Pakistani player to get into double digits!
Bhuvneshwar Kumar (1-22) and Arshdeep Singh (3-32) bowled really well during the powerplay upfront dismissing both their in-form openers cheaply! Incidentally, Hardik Pandya turned out to be India's best bowler in this match with figures of 3-30 from his 4 overs. He along with Mohammad Shami (1-25) was so instrumental with the ball during the middle overs for India!
India, chasing 160 runs to win, managed to score 160 losing 6 wickets in 20 overs. They lost KL Rahul (4 off 8), Rohit Sharma (4 off 7), and Suryakumar Yadav (15 off 10) inside powerplay and had to send in Axar Patel at no. 5 to keep the left-right combination going at the crease. However, Axar Patel got dismissed in the first over after powerplay due to a mix-up with Virat Kohli.
Virat and Hardik Pandya (40 off 37) added 113 runs for the 5th wicket which was only broken on the first delivery of the final over in this run-chase. In fact, India needed 28 runs from the last 8 deliveries and then Virat hit 2 consecutive sixes off the last 2 deliveries of the 19th over bowled by Haris Rauf getting India closer to the target. Haris bowled brilliantly in his 3.4 overs only to concede two massive hits in the last 2 deliveries to help India make a comeback!
Nawaz had to bowl the final over and a no-ball Six by Virat in the final over and 3 runs off a free-hit (Virat was bowled) made this chase more interesting! In fact, Nawaz bowled two wides in that 20th over which took the pressure away from India! Ashwin came to the crease with India needing 2 runs off the final delivery as Dinesh Karthik was stumped the previous ball!
Ashwin, keeping his cool, let go of one delivery on the leg-side which was called wide, and played an inside-out shot over the mid-on fielder off the final delivery to help India get over the line with 4 wickets in hand! Virat Kohli was instrumental in this run-chase scoring unbeaten 82* runs off 53 deliveries. Unfortunately, he did not get to hit the winning runs though!
In 2021, Pakistan defeated India for the first time in a World Cup match. Shaheen Afridi bowled superbly in that match but India did not concede a single wicket to the left-arm pacer in this match!
Match result: India defeated Pakistan by a margin of 4 wickets.
Virat Kohli has been adjudged as the Player of the Match for his crucial contribution of 82* runs off 53 deliveries including 6 fours and 4 sixes.
Brief Scores: India: 160-6 in 20 overs (Virat Kohli - 82*, Haris Rauf 2-36) defeated Pakistan: 159-8 in 20 overs (Shan Masood - 52, Hardik Pandya - 3-30) by a margin of 4 wickets
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