Colombo, Feb 15(.) India comprehensively beat Pakistan by 61 runs at the ongoing ICC T20 World Cup here on Sunday at the R Premedasa stadium.
Sent in to bat by Pakistan captain Salman Ali Agha, India got off to a poor start losing opener Abhishek Sharma for a duck in the very first over. However Ishan Kishan who opened the innings with Sharma was in terrific touch scoring 77 of merely 40 balls.
After Kishan departed, Indian batsmen struggled to score freely.
The wicket was two paced as Pakistan spinners Salman Ali Agha, Usman Tariq and Mohammad Nawaz dominated, keeping Indian batsmen in check.
Tilak Varma could manage a 25 of 24 balls and skipper Suryakumar also found it hard to score freely managing a score of 32 in 29 balls.
A late charge from Rinku Singh (11 of 4 balls) and Shivam Dube(27 from 17 balls) helped India reach a competitive score of 175/7 in their 20 overs.
Pakistani batsmen could not follow up on the good work of their spinners as opener Sahibzada Farhan skied a catch to Rinku Singh in the very first over off Hardik Pandya. That really set the tone for the Pakistani innings as they kept on loosing wickets on regular intervals. In the next over Saim Ayub hit Bumrah for a 6 but was trapped LBW in the next ball by a length ball. Bumrah got rid of Salman Ali Agha(4) in the same over, caught by Pandya.
Veteran Babar Azam(5) was bowled by Azar Patel in the fifth over.
Wicket keeper Usman Khan(44) and Shadab Khan(14) put up a resistance for a while but the former was stumped of the bowling of Axar with the score at 73 for five.
Faheem Ashraf scored 10 runs before being caught by Rinku of the bowling of Varun Chakaravarthy, the scoreboard read 97 for eight. At this juncture Indian captain decided to give part timers the ball, so Tilak Varma and Rinku Singh turned their arms over. Shaheen Afridi hit a few lofty blows of Rinku Singh on his way to an unbeaten 23. Hardik Pandya castled Usman Tariq to complete India’s victory.
Jasprit Bumrah, Axar Patel, Hardik Pandya, Varun Chakaravarthy all took two wickets each while Kuldeep Yadav and Tilak Varma took one wicket each for India.
With this win in their third round robin match India lead Group A with 6 points, they have won all their three games they have played thus far.

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