Led by Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Hardik Pandya, Indian pacers dished out short-pitch stuff right through the innings as first five Pakistan wickets fell to deliveries climbing to the shoulders of the Pakistani batters. Bhuvneshwar’s 4/26 and Hardik’s 3/25 gave Indian batters a relatively modest target to go one-up over Pakistan in this tournament. It came down to Hardik to finish off the messed-up chase with an unbeaten 17-ball 33. As Hardik finished the match with a six off left-arm spinner Mohammad Nawaz, he again showed why he becomes an indispensable part of the team when he is bowling at full tilt. AS IT HAPPENEDAll of that nearly came to a naught when the Indian top order of KL Rahul (0), Rohit Sharma (12 off 18) and Virat Kohli (35 off 34) once again looked out of place against quality pace as it did on that night last October. The conservative batting, which has been a bane for India’s T20 fortunes in big matches, resurfaced as 19-year-old Naseem Shah (2/27), in place of Afridi, sent shockwaves in the Indian dressing room with some thunderbolts right up front dismissing Rahul in the first over while having Kohli dropped on naught off the first ball.
