Bhuvneshwar Kumar was in excellent form as he added Babar Azam (10) to his four-wicket haul, which was a valued scalp. He surprised the Pakistani skipper with a bouncer in his second over as Babar tried to pull, but instead top-edged to Arshdeep at short fine leg.
The Indian pacers made all the choices and grabbed all the wickets in the crucial match against Pakistan on Sunday for the Asia Cup 2022. All ten wickets were taken by Indian seamers for the first time in a T20I inning.
India’s attempt to chase down 148 runs to win the match and exact some type of retaliation for losing the T20 World Cup 2021 got off to a terrible start when KL Rahul was bowled by rookie Naseem Shah. For a time, Rohit Sharma (12) and Virat Kohli (35) played wonderfully before Mohammad Nawaz removed them both.
After Suryakumar Yadav was also out for 18 runs, Hardik Pandya and Ravindra Jadeja were the only players left to guide India to win in the final over. Due to 52 runs from Hardik Pandya (33* in 17 balls) and Ravindra Jadeja (35 in 35 balls), India won the match with 5 wickets remaining.
There is a little bounce but no swing: Kumar Bhuvneshwar
Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s four-wicket haul against Pakistan set a new mark for an Indian bowler and was the best-ever performance for the team. In 2018, he outperformed Pandya’s 3/8 at Mirpur.
After Hardik’s crucial dismissals of Rizwan (43), Khushdil Shah (2), and Iftikhar Ahmed (28), Bhuvneshwar Kumar dismissed Shadab Khan (10), Asif Ali (9), and Naseem Shah to finish off the bottom order (0).
After his excellent performance, Bhuvneshwar Kumar said, “I thought the first ball would swing before bowling it. Although there was some bounce, there was no swing. We intended to bowl short since we were aware that we had to bowl wicket to wicket.
“The pitch was a touch sloppy, and 147 indicates that we ultimately let up a few too many runs. We can win if we bat well in the first six overs because the pitch is a little streaky. Although there is no swing, there is some bounce, which we must carefully control.
India’s next game is on Wednesday against Hong Kong.