Dubai: India’s spinners engineered a spectacular collapse to bowl out Pakistan for 146 in the Asia Cup final at Dubai International Stadium on Sunday evening.
Asked to bat first after Suryakumar Yadav won the toss, Pakistan openers Sahibzada Farhan and Fakhar Zaman got off to a flier and reached 77 for no loss in 9 overs.
Kuldeep Yadav pocketed 4 wickets — including 3 in his final over — conceding 30 runs, Axar Patel bagged 2/26 and Varun Chakravarty 2/30, before Jasprit Bumrah (2/25) cleaned up the tail.
Sahibzada (57 off 38 balls) notched up a classy half-century before holing out to Tilak Varma off Varun.
The second-wicket pair of Fakhar Zaman (46 off 35) and Saim Ayub added 29 runs before Pakistan absolutely imploded.
From 113/1, Pakistan lost 9 wickets for the addition of just 33 runs!
The top 3 contributed 57, 46 and 14. And the next 8 batters made – 0, 8, 1, 6, 0, 0, 6, 1*.
Former Pakistan captain and champion fast bowler Waqar Younis was aghast. He mentioned during his commentary stint that in his many years of watching T20 cricket, he has not seen any collapse like this.
India need 147 to win the Asia Cup for the ninth time.
