New York: Jasprit Bumrah’s terrific spell helped India defeat archrival Pakistan by a narrow 6 runs in a low-scoring Twenty20 World Cup thriller at Nassau County International Cricket Stadium in New York on Sunday.
The score of 119 was the joint-lowest total defended any team at the Men’s T20 World Cup. Sri Lanka had successfully defended the score against New Zealand in the 2014 edition.
The ‘mother of all battles’ lived up to its hype with India and Pakistan playing out an absolute nail-biter after the initial dampener when rain forced a delayed start. Jasprit Bumrah picked a three-fer and gave just 14 runs in his four overs and was well supported by Hardik Pandya and Arshdeep Singh, who claimed two wickets each. Arshdeep also held his nerves in the last over when Pakistan needed 18 runs and India won the crucial match by 6 runs to go 7-1 up.
India vs Pakistan. New continent, same result 😛
T20 may be a batters’ game, but in New York, bowlers were the Apple of our eyes today.
What a thrilling match! Great atmosphere and a wonderful exhibition of our great game in America. Well played, India 🇮🇳 😊#INDvPAK… pic.twitter.com/tdVVREclVp
— Sachin Tendulkar (@sachin_rt) June 9, 2024
In eight matches the two teams have played against each other in T20 World Cup history, India have emerged victorious seven times, including the match in 2007 edition’s group stage that ended in a tie and MS Dhoni’s men then won via tie-breaker ‘bowl out’. Their only defeat against Pakistan came in the 2021 edition in Dubai.
The seven wins are the most for any team against an opponent at the Men’s T20 World Cup.
Chasing a seemingly meagre target, Pakistan were 80-3 after 14 overs before Bumrah dismissed Mohammad Rizwan for 31, the top scorer for his team as others could not cross even 15 runs. The team lost seven wickets in 20 overs with the scoreboard reading 113 runs.
Rishabh Pant top-scored with a chancy 42 and Axar Patel – surprisingly promoted to No. 4 – made 20 after skipper Rohit Sharma (13) flattered to deceive as Pakistan bowlers dominated from the beginning. Virat Kohli (4), Suryakumar Yadav (7), Shivam Dube (3), Hardik Pandya (7) and Ravindra Jadeja (0) had no clue about how to tackle the Pakistani pace quartet.
Haris Rauf and Naseem Shah took three wickets each, while Mohammad Amir and Shaheen Shah Afridi took two and one wickets, respectively.
