India vs Pakistan Highlights Asia Cup Super 4: Kuldeep rules with memorable five-for as IND steamroll PAK for huge win

India vs Pakistan Live Score: Chances of a quick start after the rains stop and the covers get taken away is high as the ground staff had covered the ground up well before the major rains started coming down. There are puddles on the cover though and so just the act of taking off the covers is going to be a tricky one. 

India vs Pakistan Live Score: Not a single person can be seen in the stands. We are supposed to be just over half an hour away from the restart but the players are still in their training kits. And they are doing anything but training. The rain has set in and it is belting down at the moment on the ground. 

India vs Pakistan Live Score: We can see Mohammed Rizwan munching on something from a bowl and chatting away with the ground staff. Apart from that, the stadium is as empty as it gets, not something you get to see too often ahead of an India-Pakistan match. It is all dark and gloomy and if the rain does stop on time, any wet patches on the ground will require more management.

India vs Pakistan Live Score: But none of the players are in the middle as the “middle” is blue and shiny. The entire ground has been covered up and it is still drizzling. 

India vs Pakistan Live Score: Sri Lankan news states that there is only 50-60% chances of rain over the course of the afternoon. Do remember that India and Sri Lanka are in the same timezones so there is no calculations you have to do to understand what "afternoon" would mean here.

India vs Pakistan Live Score: We have run out of good news and good luck. It was sunny in Colombo but it seems that the weather in the city has alternated between bright and dark all day long. Rains have not been absent altogether and at the moment, it is pouring in sheets over the city.

India vs Pakistan Live Score: No, we are not talking about cool technology that is helping elevate the fan experience at the R Premadasa. Instead, we are talking about literal fans. The wet patch in the outfield was proving to be difficult to dry up and one of the many methods used yesterday, was to blast pedestal fans on it. They were also used on the pitch to get it ready as soon as possible. Alas, even that piece of innovation didn't work.

India vs Pakistan Live Score: KL Rahul was on strike at 17 off 28 balls while Virat Kohli was at the other end on 8 off 16 when the umpires led the players off the field yesterday. Shadab Khan was bowling his seventh over.

India vs Pakistan Live Score: “We have got two main issues, near square leg and point, they are quiet wet and soft. The foundation of the ground there is too soft and dangerous for the players. We are trying to dry it with fans and will have a look in another 10-12 minutes. We think we are trying our best as groundstaff, possible looking at 9pm start but we have to see how it goes,” said umpires Chris Gaffaney and Ruchira Palliyaguruge before it became clear that no more play was possible. 

India vs Pakistan Live Score: Well, there are good murmurs coming from Colombo. Blue skies have prevailed in their battle with the dark ones for now above the R Premadasa Stadium and the ground is bathed in sunlight. Bring your best rain dances and black magic equipment if you believe those can help in keeping those clouds away.

India vs Pakistan Live Score: Former India captain and former India head coach Anil Kumble feels that India should have actively developed these part-time options in the years between the last ODI World Cup and this one. “One problem which needed to be addressed from the last World Cup to this one is that we needed more all-rounders. Which has never been addressed. We don't have batters who can come and give you those options. Bowlers giving you some batting is secondary but I think batters giving you bowling options certainly increases the depth. We had four years. You had to develop those players. Instructions had to be given (and team management) should have identified those players. For example, Yashasvi Jaiswal I know bowls leg spin. But I have hardly seen him bowl in any match in the last one year. Shreyas Iyer gives a bit of bowling but now I don't know with his back issues whether he will do that. Rohit used to bowl before he had the shoulder dislocation. You need options.”

India vs Pakistan Live Score: This era of Indian cricket is different from the previous one in the way that India's batters almost never bowl. This stands in stark contrast to what India had in the previous generation. Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Sourav Ganguly, Yuvraj Singh and Suresh Raina were all world class batters but they were also extremely useful with the ball. Yuvraj famously won the player of the tournament in the 2011 World Cup for his all-round efforts. The current Indian team has Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel as proper all-rounders. However, Jadeja and Axar are used mutually exclusively which means that at a time, while Jadeja is very much a vital cog of the spin department, as opposed to being a part-timer. The same can be said about Pandya and his importance as a third or fourth seamer. There are no Sehwags or Tendulkars or Yuvrajs to spice things up when the going gets tough at the moment.

India vs Pakistan Live Score: Jasprit Bumrah recently became a father and he had missed India's last match against Nepal for the birth of his child. Shaheen Afridi, who is set to tie the knot in the next few months, won a few hearts by acknowledging that. In a video shared by the official Twitter handle of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), speedster Afridi was seen congratulating Bumrah on becoming a father. Pace ace Bumrah and his wife Sanjana Ganesan became parents to a baby boy last week. During his unforgettable interaction with Bumrah, Pakistan's star pacer Afridi gave a special gift to the Indian pacer, who exchanged wedding vows with popular sports presenter Sanjana in 2021

India vs Pakistan Live Score: Rohit Sharma is only behind Sachin Tendulkar in the list of highest rungetters for India at the ODI Asia Cup. Rohit has smashed 886 runs in 25 ODIs while Tendulkar amassed 971 in 23 games. Meanwhile he surpassed Tendulkar's record of half centuries in the Asia Cup with his knock on Sunday. This was his eighth half century in the tournament, thus helping him pull level with Sri Lanka great Kumar Sangakkara (8). Rohit played a blazing knock of 56 off 49 balls. The Indian captain laced his innings with six fours and four sixes. Batting at a strike rate of over 114, Rohit was dismissed by Shadab Khan in the 17th over.

Waqar Younis feels that the presence of batters of Hardik Pandya and Ravindra Jadeja's calibre makes the Indian batting a strong unit. "Look at what Hardik and Jadeja bring to the table. They are well equipped with both bat and ball. Especially Hardik Pandya – the way he batted against Pakistan – I think he is a really destructive batter at No. 6. Any team would love to have someone like him. He is aggressive, and now as we saw in the previous match, he is very sensible and smart. He played like a champion. He took his time and when the time was right, he pushed his natural game. I feel that these 2 at No. 6 and 7 will give India that push. All they want to do is not lose early wickets. If you give these 2 last 10 overs, they can chase the game pretty quickly."" the former Pakistan pacer told the host broadcaster.

India vs Pakistan Live Score: The reserve day will be a continuation of a match and not a restart. So the score from the scheduled match day will be carried forward to the reserve day. India in this case will resume from 147/2 and will hope to pile as many runs in the remaining 25.5 overs. A minimum of 20 overs must be bowled in both innings to determine a result. India at that moment were batting at 147/2 in 24.1 overs with Virat Kohli and KL Rahul present in the middle. For more on how this day can go down, you can click right here all along this section and it will magically take you to a copy that we have on just this topic.

India vs Pakistan Live Score: This unscheduled reserve day comes with a bit of a problem for India. Technically, they would now be playing matches on three consecutive days as they are now scheduled to take on Sri Lanka tomorrow at the same ground. Moreover, if we have a full match today, India will be bowling for much of it and so their fast bowlers and fielders, among whom will be the freshly returned KL Rahul who is also expected to put in a shift with the bat, will be stretched physically. Not an ideal scenario by any means for Rohit Sharma and Co.

India vs Pakistan Live Score: Kohli is just 10 runs away from getting 13,000 career runs in ODIs. He will be the fastest to get there by some distance. Kohli is currently playing 267th ODI innings and Sachin Tendulkar holds the record for fastest to 13,000 runs, having got there in 321 innings. He will also be the fifth batter in the world to have got to that mark after Tendulkar, Ricky Ponting, Sanath Jayasuriya and Kumar Sangakkara. Among the top 10 ODI run scorers of all time, Kohli has the highest average by a mile. Sachin Tendulkar has the second highest average after Kohli in that club with 44.83 in 463 matches.

India vs Pakistan Live Score: Well, Rohit Sharma is not the only all-time great in this Indian team. In fact, if Rohit has been prolific, Kohli gives that word a whole new definition. Kohli has scored 12,910 runs (yes, no typos there) in 278 matches at an average of 57.12 (no typos there either) and strike rate of 93.55 (wait, there is a typo there. Nope, just kidding). He has scored 46 centuries and 65 half-centuries. If his average seems abnormally high, do note that it has come down in recent years from the 60s due to the downturn in form he experienced between 2019 and 2021. He has been watchful thus far in this innings, which is exactly what India need, scoring eight runs in 16 balls with no boundaries yet.

India vs Pakistan Live Score: Rohit Sharma is one of the greatest ODI opening batters of all time and his stats only establish the fact even further. He has scored 9978 runs at an average of 48.91 in 247 matches and an incredible strike rate of 90.19 with 30 centuries and 50 half-centuries. Famously, three of those centuries were converted into double hundreds, making him the only male cricketer to do so. This includes a record 264 off 173 balls against Sri Lanka at the Eden Gardens in November 2014. That remains the highest score by any player in men's ODI cricket by a long shot and it has repeatedly been referred to as the kind of record that can never be surpassed.

India vs Pakistan Live Score: Rohit Sharma fell on 56 off 49 balls on Sunday. That left his career ODI tally at 9978 runs, just 22 runs short of 10,000. If he gets there, he will be the sixth Indian batter to reach 10,000 runs in ODI cricket. He will also be the only active Indian cricketer apart from Virat Kohli to have 10,000 ODI runs. Overall, he would be the 15th cricketer to have reached the milestone. It is not just among active Indian cricketers that Rohit would be the only one apart from Kohli to get there. In fact, the third highest active run scorer behind these two is Bangladesh's Mushfiqur Rahim who has 7388 runs.

India vs Pakistan Live Score: Rohit and Gill are the sixth Indian opening pair to put up century stands in two consecutive matches. They join Raman Lamba-K Srikkanth, Ajay Jadeja-Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly-Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag-Sachin Tendulkar and Rohit Sharma-Shikhar Dhawan in that list. Needless to say, Rohit is the only batter apart from Tendulkar to have featured more than once in this list. Rohit and Gill have smashed 685 runs while batting together in the 50-over format. The Indian openers have achieved a stunning average of 76.11 in ODI cricket. It is quite clear now that regardless of how India lineup below them, and indeed Virat Kohli at No.3, Rohit and Gill will lead their charge in the World Cup.

India vs Pakistan Live Score: If one thought the Indian openers would come out with an intention to survive, how they were proven wrong. Rohit and Gill punished Shaheen Afridi and Naseem Shah, and later Faheem Ashraf in the first 10 overs, for any loose delivery that they would bowl. It meant that India soared to 61/0 in the first 10 overs and it only increased after that. At the point where the partnership ended, the run rate was approaching 7.50. They put up 121 runs for the opening stand, the second consecutive century partnership between them. The Pakistan bowlers, who seemed to be largely on the money early on, were completely thrown off their line with that salvo. 

India vs Pakistan Live Score: Shubman Gill has had a tough time of it in the second half of the year after pretty much going on overdrive in all formats during the first half. However, he had a good outing in India's previous match against Nepal and on Sunday, showed that this was no fluke. He had a jittery start against the brilliant Naseem Shah, almost getting out caught at point first ball. But after that, Gill was in total control to the point that he almost entirely took over the scoring from Rohit Sharma after the second over until the 10th. Gill scored 58 off 52 balls before finally falling to Shaheen Afridi. The World Cup will be played in home conditions somewhat similar to what was there at the R Premadasa yesterday. All good signs for India. 

India vs Pakistan Live Score: … well then we have run out of days reserved for this match, for now at least. Today is a long day and you never know what the organisers might think up to negate this weather issue. Likelihood of more arbitrary reserve days are low but you never know with these. As it stands, the two teams will share points and this game will have no result.