Asia Cup 2022: India vs Pakistan matches is always full of excitement, drama and joy. When the two cricketing giants collide, the stakes get pretty high, the expectations reach the stratosphere and the quality of play also gets to its peak. On Sunday, September 4, the two neighbours again collided in the Super Four of the ongoing Asia Cup 2022 and all the buzz about these Indo-Pak encounters proved to be true yet again. This time around Pakistan got the better of India as they won by 5 wickets and a ball to go.
Three reasons why India’s ship failed to sail past Pakistan’s challenge
Openers fell in quick succession after providing a good start
The Indian opening pair of Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul finally provided a good start after some matches as they took on the Pakistani seamers. India was 54/0 after five overs when Haris Rauf sent Rohit Sharma back to the hut. The Indian skipper was soon followed by his partner KL Rahul, who fell prey to Shadab Khan in the next over. This forced India into a rebuild situation after the powerplay.
The middle order’s approach didn’t yield results
The Indian middle order, which has been the torch bearer of the team in the previous two matches, looked flat on Sunday’s defeat. The trio of Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant and Hardik Pandya fell cheaply, which disallowed India to finish better despite being dominant in the first half of India’s batting.
Indian spinners could not create a big impact
One more glaring difference between India and Pakistan was the impact created by spinners in holding the batters. The Pakistani spin duo of Shadab Khan and Mohammad Nawaz took crucial wickets and were also economical. Shadab scalped two wickets and ended with the figures of 4-25-2 while Nawaz was more economical and scalped one wicket. He ended with the figures of 4-25-1.
Meanwhile, the Indian spinners were not as effective as their counterparts. Though Bishnoi was economical and ended with figures of 4-26-1, Chahal faced the brunt of the batters. He ended up with figures of 4-43-1.
Even though India took the match till the final over, Pakistan was a bit better on the day to beat India by 5 wickets. India will next face Sri Lanka in its second match of the Super Four on Tuesday and will look to bounce back.
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