Asia Cup Cricket: India thoroughly rough up Pakistan

0
630

Colombo, Sept 11: Much to the disappointment of Pakistani cricket fans, India handed the Men in Green a humiliating defeat to register biggest-ever ODI win against the arch-rivals at the R. Premadasa Stadium, Colombo on Monday.

Earlier, the rain in Colombo played spoilsport once again as the match in the ongoing Asia Cup 2023 was halted.

Before the game was interrupted, Pakistan lost early wickets of opener Imam-ul-Haq and skipper Babar Azam just for 43 runs in 11.4 overs.

Earlier, fiery hundreds by Indian batters Virat Kohli and KL Rahul propelled the side to post a massive 357-run target for Pakistan to win the Super 4 clash.

The game was marred by the rain on the first day at the Colombo’s R. Premadasa Stadium, and it continued today on the reserve day from where it was left on Sunday, with no overs lost.

The high-voltage Pakistan-India clash resumed on Monday after hours of delay due to a wet outfield but thankfully no overs were lost.

It had been raining intermittently since early morning and the sky was overcast with dark clouds, while strong winds continued to blow in Colombo.

Today, India dominated proceedings as soon as the players stepped out on the field. They finished on 356-2 in their allotted 50 overs as Pakistan remained wicketless on the reserve day.

Kohli remained unbeaten on 122 runs in 94 balls with the help of nine fours and three sixes.

Meanwhile, Rahul was not out on 111 runs in 106 balls which included 14 boundaries.

It must be noted that Pakistan won the toss and decided to bowl first against India in the Asia Cup 2023 Super 4 match.

Put into bat, India had reached 147-2 in 24.1 overs when heavy rain suspended play. The umpires waited for nearly four hours before deciding to postpone the remaining game to today.

Pakistan fielded an unchanged playing XI for this high-voltage clash. However, today, key pacer Haris Rauf was ruled out from the match as a precautionary measure due to an injury.

Lineups
India: Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Ishan Kishan (wk), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj

Pakistan: Fakhar Zaman, Imam-ul-Haq, Babar Azam (c), Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Agha Salman, Iftikhar Ahmed, Shadab Khan, Faheem Ashraf, Shaheen Afridi, Naseem Shah, Haris Rauf