Asia Cup 2022, India vs Pakistan Highlights: Hardik's all-round show helps India pull off a scrappy win over Pakistan

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.

Kohli and Rohit looked scrappy in their stay before being holed out at long-off off Nawaz (3/33). Ravindra Jadeja, sent out to bat at No. 4 in the absence of Rishabh Pant, labored to a 29-ball 35. But it was his 29-ball 52-run partnership with Hardik coupled with Pakistan’s wayward bowling and slow over-rate (resulting in Pakistan having to have five fielders inside the circle in the last three overs) that saved the day for India. The memories of openers Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan running the Indian attack ragged in that same match too couldn’t be discounted when