By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2025-09-15 02:33:43
There was a lot of hype preceding the India-Pakistan match in the Asia Cup.In the end, it turned out to be a no-contest as India thrashed Pakistan by 7 wickets with more than 4 overs to spare. Pakistan chose to bat after winning the toss but their batters let them down. All at sea against both pace and spin, they scored just 127 for 9 wickets, helped largely by a blistering cameo by Shaheen Shah Afridi who knocked off 33 runs in just 16 balls with four towering sixes. If not for him, Pakistan would not have scored even 100 runs. Earlier Shahibzada Farhan was the only batter to tackle the Indian bowling with some authority as he scored 40 off 44 balls.Overall, it was a pathetic display by Pakistan. For India, Kuldeep Yadav and Azar Patel were outstanding.
When India came out to bat, Abhishek Sharma was on fire, scoring 31 off just 13 balls. Tilak Verma too chipped in with 31 off 31 but it was Suryakumar Yadav (47 off 37), who finished the match with a six, who tormented Pakistani bowlers. Tentative at first, Yadav opened up as he got his eye in and took the game away from Pakistan. In any case, given the strength of Indiaâs batting line-up, 127 was too small a score to defend. Pakistan were outplayed in all departments of the game.
Suryakumar Yadav made many statements on the day. He did not make eye contact with the Pakistani captain at the toss, nor did he shake his hand. Later, after the win, he just wlalked away to the dressing room and Indian players did not shake hands with the Pakistanis. In the post-match briefing, Yadav talked about the Pahalgam attack and said that the team stood by the families of the victims. He dedicated the win to the Indian armed forces.









