With Virat Kohli showing his class once again, India sealed a nail-biter against Pakistan in their T20 World Cup opener on Monday in Melbourne.
In the last five overs, India needed 60 runs to chase down the target of 160 runs. Haris Rauf and Naseem Shah conceded 12 runs in the 16th and 17th overs. But in the 18th over, Virat hit three fours off Shaheen Afridi and the target came down to 31 in the last two overs.
Haris conceded 15 in the 19th over with two consecutive sixes off fifth and sixth deliveries by Kohli.
In the last over, India needed 16 runs with six wickets in hand. Mohammad Nawaz scalped the wicket of Hardik Pandya in the first ball. In the next two, he conceded only three runs, but off the fourth delivery, Virat hit a six. The fifth one was a no-ball that was also smashed for a six by Virat.
Eventually, India sealed the match by four wickets with Virat remaining unbeaten for 82 off 53 balls.
For Pakistan, Haris and Nawaz scalped two wickets each, but their efforts went in vain as Pakistan failed to hold their nerve at the end of the match.
Earlier, Pakistan batted first in this match after losing the toss. Shan Masood and Iftikhar Ahmed hit a fifty each for them.
Apart from them, none of the other Pakistan batters was able to offer some challenges to Indian bowlers.
Babar Azam suffered a duck while playing a straight delivery from Arshdeep Singh who also sent back the other opener Rizwan Ahmed for only four. It was a rare failure from both of Pakistan’s openers.
For India, Arshdeep and Hardik Pandya bagged three wickets. Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Mohammed Shami took one wicket each.
In reply, India lost three wickets inside the powerplay. They lost the fourth wicket in 31 runs. And after that, Virat and Hardik came up with a match-winning partnership of 113 off 78 balls with Hardik scoring 40 off 37 balls.
With this win, India continued to dominate Pakistan in the ICC events.
