Brimming with confidence, Pakistan team is on a roll after back-to-back victories in the ongoing Asia Cup. On Sunday, Pakistan pulled off a five-wicket win against their arch-rivals India in a nail-biting Asia Cup's Super Four clash at the Dubai International Stadium.
Marking a sensational comeback, the Men in Green also exacted the revenge of the five-wicket loss to India in the Asia Cup opener as they celebrated the win in style.
While chasing an uphill target of 182, Pakistan's promising opener Mohammad Rizwan once again stepped up and carried the team on his back with yet another match-winning half century (71 off 51) as skipper Babar Azam once again dismissed on a lowly score of 14 of 10.
Mohammad Nawaz was promoted up the order and the experiment yielded in Pakistan's favour as the star batter blasted 42 off 20 before Asif Ali made a chance count to hit a couple of fours and a maximum to cruise his side past victory line.
Asif and Khushdil Shah accumulated 19 runs off the penultimate over bowled by Bhuvneshwar Kumar, which left just seven for Arshdeep Singh to defend.
Arshdeep, already under pressure having dropped a sitter bowled a yorker to start with but Asif on the second delivery utilised the low full toss to hit it straight over the bowler's head. A dot ball and a wicket made things interesting as the equation came down to two needed off two with a new batter in. However, Iftikhar Ahmed kept his calm and finished the game with a ball to spare to get his side home.
Pakistan team's roaring celebration
Meanwhile, Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) shared a video of the players' raw emotions from the dressing room during the thrilling final over. The boundary was celebrated like anything as the players expected that the win was round the corner and the morale went down as soon as the wicket fell. But, finally when the job was done, Shadab Khan, skipper Babar came up with aggressive roaring celebrations with the entire dressing room joining in. The video instantly went viral as Pakistan completed a thrilling victory in Dubai.
For India, Virat Kohli once again clicked for the team with a sensational 60 off 44 to steer his team to 181/7 but his efforts went in vain as Pakistan had the last laugh.
India will next play Sri Lanka on Tuesday (September 6) while Pakistan will face Afghanistan on Wednesday (September 7).
India's squad: Rohit Sharma (c), KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant, Deepak Hooda, Dinesh Karthik, Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, R Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Ravi Bishnoi, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Arshdeep Singh, Avesh Khan.
Pakistan's squad: Babar Azam (c), Shadab Khan, Asif Ali, Fakhar Zaman, Haider Ali, Haris Rauf, Iftikhar Ahmed, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Rizwan, Naseem Shah, Shahnawaz Dahani, Usman Qadir, Mohammed Hasnain, Hasan Ali.
