Man of the Match India vs Pakistan: The Indian all-rounder won his third T20I match award at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium tonight.
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During the second match of Asia Cup 2022 between India and Pakistan in Dubai, India beat Pakistan by 5 wickets to earn a couple of points from their first match itself.
Chasing a 148-run target, India managed to secure a victory on the back of a match-winning 29-ball 51-run fifth wicket partnership between all-rounders Ravindra Jadeja (35) and Hardik Pandya (33*).
Pakistan chipping in with wickets at regular intervals kept them in the match but it wasn’t to be eventually as Pandya hit four fours and a six at a strike rate of 194.11 to seal the chase with a couple of deliveries remaining in the match.
Having hit three fours off Pakistan pacer Haris Rauf in the penultimate over to gain an advantage, Pandya hit all-rounder Mohammad Nawaz for a six when India needed six runs off three balls to win the match.
Man of the Match India vs Pakistan today match
India captain Rohit Sharma (12) electing to bowl after winning the toss worked in their favour as Pakistan were bundled out for 147 in 19.5 overs to put on display a lacklustre performance.
Having picked wickets of top-order, middle-order and lower-order batters, India pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar was the pick of their bowlers with figures of 4-0-26-4. In what was the first-ever instance of Indian pacers picking all the 10 wickets in a T20I, Kumar was well-assisted by Pandya and Arshdeep Singh who picked three and two wickets respectively.
Pandya, who dismissed Iftikhar Ahmed (28), Mohammad Rizwan (43) and Khushdil Shah (2) for just 25 runs in his four-over spell, was a deserving candidate of the Player of the Match award tonight.
“In bowling, it’s important to assess the situations and use your weapons. For me, bowling short and the hard lengths have been my strengths. It’s about using them well and asking the right questions to make the batters commit a mistake,” Pandya told the host broadcaster during the post-match presentation ceremony.
“In a chase like this, you always plan over-by-over. I always knew that there is one young bowler and also one left-arm spinner. We only needed 7 off the last over but even if we needed 15, I’d have fancied myself. I know the bowler is under more pressure than me in the 20th over.”
