Two early wickets for Pacer Bhuvaneshwar Kumar eased the tension for Indian team in their Asia Cup encounter against Pakistan in Dubai today. The two arch rivals were meeting each other after almost 15 months. With two wickets down, Pakistan seemed to be in comfortable position, when Kuldeep Yadav clean bowled well set Babar Azam. With all rounder and spinner Kedar Jadhav grabbing the three important wickets of Pakistan middle order and Shoaib Malik becoming run out, India seemed to be in a comfortable position and it did not take much time for them to wind up Pakistan innings only for 162. After Hardik Pandya suffering a serious injury while bowling, the services of Kedar Jadhav proved very useful for India. Bsides taking those 3 important wickets, he was very economical. He proved to be the man with Golden arm.
India captain Rohit Sharma
In reply Indian openers Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhavan played brilliantly demoralising Pakistan pacers , selecting the right ball to send across the fence. The eighth over of Usman was smashed by skipper Rohit Sharma with 19 runs, clearly indicated that Indians had dominated Pakistani players in this match. Though both the openers departed after putting India into a good position, it was very little left for Ambati Rayadu and Dinesh karthik and both played with patience to give India a comfortable win over their arch rivals.
It was interesting to watch the reaction of former test cricketer and present commentator Sanjay Manjrekar, who had predicted that Pakistan will have an upper hand in this match. His comments before this match were aired on a popular news channel. One really wondered on what basis he was so sure about Pakistan doing well. The real hero of India’s win was unstoppable Rohit Sharma for his intelligent captaincy and wonderful batting. This victory has certainly boosted the confidence of the Indian team. They will be meeting Pakistan once again in their second encounter on Sunday 23rd September .Hope the Indians would continue with their present form to return home with Asia cup.