Rizwan, Nawaz central in Pakistan’s thrilling success
- Brief Scores: India 181/7 in 20 overs (Kohli 60; Shadab 2-31, Nawaz 1-25) lost to Pakistan 182/5 in 19.1 overs (Rizwan 71, Nawaz 42; Bishnoi 1-26, Arshdeep 1-27) by five wickets.
Mohammad Rizwan’s half-century (71 off 51) and Mohammad Nawaz’s inspired promotion (42 off 20) helped Pakistan notch up the second-highest run-chase (182) in the UAE and beat India by five wickets in Dubai. It was yet another last-over thriller between the teams, who had met at this very venue only last Sunday. India had come out on top then and it was Pakistan’s turn to return the favour a week later.
A story of nervous last overs
Earlier in the evening, Fakhar Zaman misfielded twice in the 20th over and allowed India an extra seven runs on the board. Luckily for Pakistan, India were no better when it came to handling pressure in the crux overs and let the match slip. Arshdeep Singh, dropped Asif Ali’s simple catch at short third man. Then on nought, Asif scored 16 off 8.
How Nawaz stunned India
Through sheer muscle power and nous, cleverly using the left-hander’s angle to explore the shorter boundaries on the ground. Coming in to bat at No.4, Nawaz hit 6 fours and 2 sixes and helped all but changed the course of the game. It meant that India couldn’t really build on their legspinners getting rid of Babar Azam and Fakhar Azam early. In fact for Nawaz, the two legspinners in the opposition played to his strengths.
Nawaz and Rizwan, limping after a jarred knee while keeping, added 73 runs for the third wicket, taking India by surprise but as it’s the case more often than not with Pakistan, they got to the target after a bit of a wobble.
The Pakistan wobble
Once Rizwan was sent back, Bishnoi followed up with an eight-run over, leaving Pakistan with 26 to get from two overs. Bhuvneshwar conceded 19 runs in the penultimate over, with Asif Ali doing majority of the damage to rub salt in India’s wounds. Arshdeep, bowling the final over and under pressure, got a yorker right against Asif but in the end was left with too much to do on a very good pitch for batting.
India made the most of their PowerPlay
“There’s pace on the deliveries and no respect for them.” This from Waqar Younis on air summed up what was happening in the middle in those first six overs. Sent in to bat, India were off to a fast start thanks to Rohit Sharma, who took on Naseem Shah in the opening four and set the template for India. KL Rahul took a little more time with a run-a-ball five before he got going, hitting the ball on the up and stroking some glorious fours and sixes down the ground.
Even though Rohit fell in the final over of the PowerPlay, miscuing a slower delivery from Haris Rauf, India had already added fifty off the board in 26 balls and finished with 62/1 in the first six, their best ever PowerPlay score in T20Is against Pakistan.
Spinners pave a way back for Pakistan
Consider this: Pakistan’s three pacers picked 3 for 121 whereas the two spinners had combined figures of 3 for 56.
India were 46/0 after four overs when left-arm spinner Mohammad Nawaz was called on to bowl in the PowerPlay. And he fared well, conceding only nine runs and bowling the most economical over of the innings until then. Shadab, the legspinner, struck with his first delivery of the match, getting Rahul to hole out at long-on in the seventh over. The two spinners bowled in tandem and only 31 runs came off the next four overs, slowing down India in their tracks.
Kohli scores fifty but India limited to 181
With India taking on the high-risk approach, Kohli played the anchor’s innings for most of his time out there. He, however, got to his second consecutive fifty with a six and then was tasked with finishing India’s innings, something that he struggled a little with. After three dots in the final over, being bowled by Haris Rauf, he was run out trying to run the second.
