India defeated Pakistan in the opening match of the T20 World Cup played at Melbourne Cricket Ground in Australia today. Indian team won the match on the last ball of 20th over after losing five wickets.
Indian batsmen Virat Kohli and Pandiya played a viral role in the victory of their team against Pakistan. Partnership of Pandiya and Kohli added 100 runs to the Indian cricket team’s score which had lost four wickets for 45 runs by 10th over.
Earlier, Pakistan’s pace bowlers’ attack took four wickets of Indian batsmen early in the opening match of the T20 World Cup played at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) in Australia.
Indian team lost four wickets just for 45 runs in 10 overs which put pressure on their team. However, a strong 100 runs partnership of Kohli and Pandiya led to the victory of their team in one of the most thrilling T20 matches.
Naseem Shah grabbed the first wicket for Pakistan by dismissing Indian opener, Rahul, just for four runs and later, in the fourth over, Haris Rauf dismissed Rohit Sharma (4).
Pakistani fast bowler Rauf also took the wicket of Suryakumar Yadav in the sixth over while in the 7th over, Axar Patel (2) was declared run out despite fumbles made by Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan.
Indian pacer Arshdeep Singh dismissed Babar (0) in his second over with lbw while in the fourth over, Arshdeep got important the wicket of Rizwan (4).
However, Masood and Ahmed stabilised the position of Pakistan with a partnership of 76 runs before Ahmed’s dismissal.
Shaheen Shah Afridi, who managed to add 16 runs to Pakistan’s total at a strike rate of 200, also played an important innings as his quick boundaries in the death overs pressurised India. For India, Arshdeep Singh and Hardik Pandya starred as they took three wickets each.
Playing XI
Pakistan: Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Babar Azam (c), Shan Masood, Shadab Khan, Haider Ali, Iftikhar Ahmed, Mohammad Nawaz, Asif Ali, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Naseem Shah, Haris Rauf.
India: Rohit Sharma (c), KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Axar Patel, R Ashwin, Mohammed Shami, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Arshdeep Singh.
India decided to bat second after Indian skipper Sharma opted for field first. Indians were chasing a target of 160.
Earlier, Shan Masood (52) and Iftikhar Ahmed (51) helped Pakistan reach 159 runs against India.
India took control of the match early on by restricting the Men In Green from scoring and dismissing the dangerous Pakistani opening duo in under five overs.
