India got to an explosive start against Pakistan on Sunday, with openers Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul taking on the bowlers early on and hitting boundaries all around the field. In just 5.1 overs, the Indian openers gathered 54 runs at a fabulous run rate of 10.58. Captain Rohit Sharma was playing a 'hitman' innings and had scored 28 runs off just 16 balls when he skied a good length delivery off Haris Rauf and was caught by Khushdil Shah. But in the process of catching the ball, Khushdil almost collided with another Pakistani fielder.
Ex-India leg spinner Amit Mishra drew a parallel of the catch by Khushdil, with a dropped catch of Chris Gayle by Pakistani fielders in the match against West Indies some years back. In a seemingly mocking tone, Amit tweeted the pictures of both the instances and wrote "A good change for Pakistan. They have really improved their fielding. #IndvsPak"
Indian batsmen continued the momentum of hitting runs after openers Rohit and Rahul got out. The quick fall of wickets in the form of Rishabh Pant and Hardik Pandya, did put a brake on India's run rate in the middle overs. But ex-captain Virat Kohli firmly stood his ground and continued playing the anchor role with some magnificient strokeplay in between rotating the strike. Virat built a more than 30-run partnership with Deepak Hooda to take India to 168-6 when Hooda got caught out in the deep off the bowling of Naseem Shah.
{{/usCountry}}Indian batsmen continued the momentum of hitting runs after openers Rohit and Rahul got out. The quick fall of wickets in the form of Rishabh Pant and Hardik Pandya, did put a brake on India's run rate in the middle overs. But ex-captain Virat Kohli firmly stood his ground and continued playing the anchor role with some magnificient strokeplay in between rotating the strike. Virat built a more than 30-run partnership with Deepak Hooda to take India to 168-6 when Hooda got caught out in the deep off the bowling of Naseem Shah.
{{/usCountry}}In the final over, Haris Rauf bowled exceptionally to keep Virat at bay who got run out on the fourth delivery. But then Ravi Bishnoi scored two consecutive fours in the last two balls to take India to a big total of 181.
Bishnoi was dropped off the last ball by Fakhar Zaman whose mistakes in the field cost Pakistan eight runs off the final two balls.
In response, Pakistan lost Babar Azam early but a solid inning by Mohammad Rizwan, who scored a 51-ball 71, and Mohammad Nawaz (42 off 20 balls) helped the neighbours complete the run chase with one ball to spare. Pakistan won the match by five wickets.