Pakistan put India under early pressure with the most prized wicket. Faheem Ashraf accounted for the wicket of Abhishek Sharma in the second over of the innings. Notably, the southpaw has troubled the Men in Green in the previous two meetings, finishing off the clash in the powerplay with his destructive batting.
However, the golden form of the man did not continue as Ashraf used his variation to perfection to deceive Sharma and send him back to the hut early. The fall of Abhishek Sharma and his high risk approach, earned him a flak from the legendary Indian batter, Sunil Gavaskar.
Gavaskar frustrated with Abhishek Sharma’s careless approach
The veteran Indian opener was commentating at the moment and as Sharma fell, he was heard saying: “Not surprising, with the way he was playing, he always looked in trouble. Do not open the door. Get off to a good start and then take the game from there.”
The legend was visibly irritated by the way Sharma got dismissed. He did not shy away from expressing his frustration, even after that. He kept saying that India were not chasing a target of around 190 and it did not require them playing shots from the word go. Sunil Gavaskar felt India needed to start sensibly and giving even a small window of opportunity to Pakistan in such a big clash could spell disaster.
India won the toss for the game and put Pakistan to bat. They made a brilliant start to their innings with Sahibzada Farhan and Fakhar Zaman laying the foundation with a 84-run opening partnership. At one stage in the game, they were stationed at 113/1 and looked set for a 180 plus total. However, the Indian bowlers did a brilliant job, triggered a collapse and bundled them out for just 146 runs in the last over of the innings.
Indian middle order under pressure
{{/usCountry}}India won the toss for the game and put Pakistan to bat. They made a brilliant start to their innings with Sahibzada Farhan and Fakhar Zaman laying the foundation with a 84-run opening partnership. At one stage in the game, they were stationed at 113/1 and looked set for a 180 plus total. However, the Indian bowlers did a brilliant job, triggered a collapse and bundled them out for just 146 runs in the last over of the innings.
Indian middle order under pressure
{{/usCountry}}However, Pakistan struck early with the wickets of Abhishek Sharma and Suryakumar Yadav. They have tasted blood with India struggling within the first three overs of the chase and that is exactly what Gavaskar was fearing to start with. The Indian team are now looking at their relatively undercooked middle order to bail the team out of the trouble.
There has been a notion among the Pakistan cricket fans and experts that Abhishek Sharma is the only thing that is keeping their team away from a win. An early dismissal of Sharma will surely result in a Pakistan win, is what they believed. That theory will be put to test on the biggest night of the tournament.
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