Asia Cup
Rizwan hits 71 as Pakistan beat India by five wickets in Asia Cup Super 4 stage clash
Dubai: Riding on Mohammad Rizwan's charismatic 71 runs knock, Pakistan defeated India by five wickets in a Super 4 state of the Asia Cup here on Sunday.
In the group stage match of the tournament last week, India had defeated Pakistan.
After scoring 181 runs for the loss of seven wickets, India bowlers failed to restrict the opponent as Pakistan reached the target of 182 runs by losing five wickets.
Khushdil Shah (14*) and Asif Ali (16) played the match winning scores for Pakistan to help reach the target at the end.
All the Indian bowlers gave away runs in the high-scoring encounter.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ravi Bishnoi, Hardik Pandya and Chahal picked up a wicket each in the clash.
Mohammad Nawaz (42) remained the second top scorer for Pakistan in the match.
Virat Kohli's 60 off 44 powered India to 181/7 against Pakistan in the second Super-4 T20 match of Asia Cup at Dubai International Stadium here on Sunday.
The opening pair - Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul put to sword the criticism of playing slow cricket in the last two games. They got off to a flier scoring 54 runs off the first five overs.
Rohit showed signs of aggression from ball one as he pulled Naseem Shah for maximum and then charged down to slice over cover in the same over.
In the next over, Rohit punched the ball off Mohammad Hasnain over mid-off into the ropes. He also played a crunching drive off Haris Rauf past cover.
The Indian captain did not last long as he spooned a skier towards cover-point where Kushdil Shah plucked the catch off Rauf. He made a crucial 28 off 16 balls that was decorated with three boundaries and two sixes.
Displaying his aggression too, Rahul cracked two sixes and a boundary in his 20-ball knock of 28, before he was scalped by spinner Shadab Khan.
India tried to capitalise on the good start, but lost wickets at regular intervals as Pakistani spinners - Mohammad Nawaz (1/25) and Shadab (2/31) restricted the runflow in middle overs. India lost Surya Kumar Yadav (13 off 10), Rishabh Pant (14 off 12), Hardik Pandya (0) and Deepak Hooda (16 off 14), while Virat went on with his job to get at the other end.
Virat was at his vintage best pacing his innings superbly to notch up a 36-ball fifty.
Naseem bowled an economical penultimate over and Haris Rauf threatened to do the same in the following over, but a couple of fielding errors from Fakhar Zaman ensured that India crossed 180.
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