Team India created history after their thrilling six-run victory over Pakistan in the high-octane ICC T20 World Cup clash, becoming the team that defended the lowest-ever total in the tournament’s history. In the match, India managed to defend the target of 120 runs, restricting Pakistan to 113/7 after completing their 20 overs. Tied with Sri Lanka defending 120 runs against New Zealand, grouping them on 60 runs in the 2014 T20 World Cup, India defended the lowest-ever total in the tournament’s history.
Furthermore, India outdid themselves, successfully defending their lowest total in T20I cricket. Previously, the lowest total successfully defended by India in T20Is was a target of 139 runs against Zimbabwe in 2016, restricting them to 135/6 and winning by three runs.
With this, India secured their seventh victory over Pakistan in the ICC T20 World Cup, having lost just one game, in the 2021 edition in the UAE, by 10 wickets.
After winning this thriller, India are top of Group A with two wins from two games and four points. Pakistan are in fourth place, having lost both games to the USA and India. Their chances in the knockout stage appear slim.
Coming into the match, Pakistan won the toss and put India in to bat first. However, the Indian batsmen failed to make things work on this difficult surface as stars Virat Kohli (4) and Rohit Sharma (13) failed to score big goals. Rishabh Pant (42 off 31 balls, with six fours) seemed to be playing on a different pitch and had useful partnerships with Axar Patel (20 off 18 balls, with two fours and a six) and Suryakumar Yadav (seven off eight balls , with a four). However, the lower middle-order crumbled under the pressure of scoring runs on such a difficult pitch and India could only make 119 in 19 overs.
Haris Rauf (3/21) and Naseem Shah (3/21) were Pakistan’s best bowlers. Mohammed Amir received two scalps, while Shaheen Shah Afridi received one.
In the chase, Pakistan adopted a more measured approach and Mohammed Rizwan (31 off 44 balls, with four and six) maintained a steady edge. However, Bumrah (14/3) and Hardik Pandya (24/2) got crucial wickets from captain Babar Azam (13), Fakhar Zaman (13), Shadab Khan (4), Iftikhar Ahmed (5) too, who kept the intact pressure on Pakistan. With 18 runs needed from the over, Naseem Shah (10*) tried to win for Pakistan, however, Arshdeep Singh (1/31) ensured that Pakistan fell short by six runs.
Bumrah secured ‘Player of the Match’ for his match-winning spell.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Topics mentioned in this article
This story originally appeared on ndtv.com read the full story
