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Tilak Varma steers shaky India to Asia Cup triumph
The batter’s unbeaten 53-ball 69 took the team to a fighting five-wicket win over Pakistan for a ninth Asia Cup win overall
Kolkata: A mature half-century from Tilak Varma helped India straddle back-to-back fifty-run partnerships involving Sanju Samson and Shivam Dube to defeat Pakistan by five wickets and win the Asia Cup in a tense final in Dubai on Sunday.
Put into bat, Pakistan cruised to 100 in just 11.2 overs before their batting imploded as they finished with 146. India have been master chasers but Pakistan bowled tight lines and fielded spectacularly to push the match to the wire. In the end, India needed 10 off the last over but Varma and Rinku Singh scored them in two hits to seal a memorable win.
The scare was real when India slipped to 10/2 after Abhishek Sharma and Suryakumar Yadav played needlessly aggressive shots. It turned for the worse with Shubman Gill too following suit—trying to lay into a cutter from Ashraf but failing to clear Haris Rauf at mid-on—and India slumping to 20/3 and their lowest ever powerplay score of 36 in this Asia Cup.
But Sanju Samson and Tilak Varma curtailed their shots, rotated the strike and added 57 off 50 balls.
Just when it was proving to be the perfect platform to launch an offensive, Samson was dismissed by Abrar Ahmed. Teased by a tossed up delivery, Samson cleared his front leg and wanted to go big but managed a slice to Shaibzada Farhan at backward point.
One wicket could have led to two in the next over had Mohammad Haris made better contact with the stumps with Varma sliding in. But then came a 17-run over off Haris Rauf where Dube first clattered him through extra cover for a boundary before Varma drilled home a four and pulled him for a six. First ball off the next over, Dube muscled Ahmed over the deep mid-wicket boundary for a flat six to bring down the equation to 41 from 29 balls.
For 16 consecutive balls after that, India couldn’t get a boundary but unlike Pakistan’s middle order, Varma and Dube didn’t forget the basics of taking singles and farming the strike. The opportunity finally came off the last ball of the 18th over. Attempting to get a yorker, Rauf ended up bowling a full toss that Dube promptly turned and deposited it into the stands for a six. The equation came down to 17 from 12 balls, putting India in the driver’s seat despite Dube’s dismissal in the 19th over.
In hindsight, Pakistan reaching 146 was always looking a sub-par effort given how Farhan and Fakhar Zaman added 84 for the opening stand, Farhan accounting for 57 of those at a strike rate of 150. Just when it seemed that Pakistan had learnt their lessons from the last two defeats to India, their middle order crumbled trying to manufacture shots instead of building on the momentum. Much of it was self-inflicted but the seeds of this victory was also sowed by India’s bowling.
Shivam Dube stepped up to share the new ball with Bumrah in the wake of Hardik Pandya missing out due to a niggle. And he never looked out of place, conceding just four boundaries in three overs, finishing with an economy of 7.66. Bumrah was targeted again, especially by Farhan who scored two fours and a massive six slogged over long-off. But like the last game, Pakistan’s batting was an unfinished article once the openers were removed.
Varun Chakravarthy took care of both with shorter than usual lengths, teasing them into hoicks that failed to clear the outfield. For the rest, Kuldeep Yadav and Axar Patel struck in tandem, Patel stalling them by bowling slower through the air and Kuldeep then baiting them with full, hittable lengths. In three T20Is now, Kuldeep’s figures against Pakistan are 3/18, 1/31 and 4/30. From 23 runs in his first two overs to 4/7 in his next two overs, the turnaround was quick and decisive.
Turning point? Two balls from Chakravarthy in the 15th over. First ball, muscled over long-on for an 89m six by Zaman, taking advantage of a length ball with some width. Next ball, Chakravarthy pushed the ball wider, making Zaman almost reach out to it. The length was fuller so he couldn’t get under it, resulting in a leading edge that Kuldeep held well back-pedalling at backward point.
The soft underbelly of Pakistan’s batting was exposed with that dismissal. Out came Hussain Talat who straightaway wanted to slog over midwicket but Patel pulled back his length and induced a bottom edge. First ball of his fourth over, it was Kuldeep’s turn to make Salman Agha play the wild slog, prompting Samson to call for it, run a fair distance and dive to catch it. Mohammad Haris at No 4 to Haris Rauf at 11, not one batter got into double digits. From 113/1 to 146 all out, it was a disaster foretold for Pakistan.
