Picture : BCCI / Twitter
Heavily criticised by critics for their unimpressive display against Hong Kong which they managed to scrap through by 26 runs, India came out all guns firing against arch rivals Pakistan in a Asia Cup encounter in Dubai.
Pakistan won the toss but struggled to get away as Indian bowlers did not give them any room to play their shots. In Bhuvneshwar Kumar (3/15), Jasprit Bumrah (2/23), Kedar Jadhav (3/23) and Kuldeep Yadav (1/37) ran through the Pakistan batting as they were bundled out for 162.
For Pakistan, Babar Azam (47) and Shoaib Malik (43) added 82 runs for the third wicket to rally Pakistan after early wickets. It suffered a batting collapse losing five wickets for 36 runs before Faheem Ashraf (21) and Mohammed Aamir (16) added an invaluable 37 runs for the eighth wicket to take the total past 150-run mark.
In return, India were clinical, skipper Rohit Sharma hit a blistering 52 off 39 balls, Shikhar Dhawan hit a fluent 46 . Ambati Rayudu and Dinesh Karthik scored unbeaten 31 each to guide India home with 21 overs to spare.
The only concern for the men in blue was the all rounder Hardik Pandya who suffered acute back injury and was taken off the field in a stretcher. He has been ruled out of the remaining part of the tournament. Seamer Deepak Chahar is his replacement.
The arch- rivals face -off yet again on the 23rd. With India having the momentum
