India and Pakistan, two arch-rivals, rarely meet except in continental or global tournaments. They are also in the same group in the Emerging Asia Cup. India-Pakistan gave a thrilling fight in their first match in 'B' group. Whereas India 'A' team had the last laugh with a 7-run win over Pakistan Shaheens.
Pakistan
Tilak Verma's India collected 183 runs for 8 wickets yesterday (Saturday) at the Al Amerat Stadium in Oman. Captain Tilak scored the maximum 44 runs (35 balls) for the team. Apart from this, the Indian 'A' team gave a challenging target to Pakistan Shaheens thanks to Abhishek Sharma's 35 (22 balls) and Pravsimran Singh's 36 runs (19 balls).
Winning the toss and batting first, they got off to a great start. A few days ago, Abhishek Pravsimran, who played T20 series against Bangladesh, scored 68 runs in the opening pair. India got that run in the power play in a flurry of batting. Spinner Sufian Mukim gave Pakistan their first success after returning the debutant who scored 35 runs with 5 fours and 2 sixes. Shortly after another opener Pravsimran (36 runs with 3 fours and sixes) returned to Arafat Minhas.
After the fall of two wickets, India's batting slowed down a bit. Meanwhile, Mukim bowled Nehal Wadhera who scored 25 runs off 22 balls. Ayush Badoni was out for just 2 runs. Tilak could not play aggressively while dealing with that shock. He scored a personal best of 44 with 2 fours and sixes before being dismissed. Apart from this, Ramandeep Singh scored 17 runs off 11 balls in the end to increase the team's capital. India scored 183 runs for 8 wickets in the stipulated over. Mukim has taken maximum 2 wickets for Pakistan.
Chasing a big target of 184 runs, Pakistan stumbled at the start by losing the wicket of captain Mohammad Haris. Omayer Yusuf was dismissed for 21 runs after his departure for 6 runs. Yasir Khan and Qasim Akram scored 54 runs for the third wicket. The departure of these two again shocked Pakistan Shaheens. Yasir scored 33 from 22 balls with a four and 3 sixes and Qasim scored 27 runs from 21 balls with 4 fours. Meanwhile, Haider Ali also got out in a slow innings (9 runs from 15 balls) adding to the danger of the team.
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After that, however, Arafat Minhas, Abdul Samad and Abbas Afridi were on the right track in chasing the target with a flurry of batting. However, Pakistan Shaheens failed to cross the boundary due to the controlled bowling of Rasikh Salam and Anshul Kamboj. Arafah scored 41 off 29 balls with 5 fours and a six, Samad 25 off 15 balls with 2 four-sixes and Abbas Afridi scored 18 runs off 9 balls with four fours. Pakistan Shaheens scored 176 runs for 7 wickets in the stipulated over. As a result, they started the Emerging Asia Cup with a loss of 7 runs. India's Anshul took maximum 3 wickets.
