Hardik Pandya helps India strike first blow against Pakistan in Asia Cup 2022

Nothing will banish the memory of that night last year when Pakistan all but expelled India from the 2021 T20 World Cup with a 10-wicket thrashing in Dubai.

But, 308 days later, India exacted at least a semblance of retribution as they inflicted the first blow on their neighbours in the DP World Asia Cup of 2022.

The two sides will probably meet again in this competition. The scars India inflicted in their five-wicket triumph at the Dubai International Stadium on Sunday night will sting for some time yet, even if they do not run quite so deep as those they suffered themselves last year.

This time around, it was far from so one-sided. India made all the running, but by the end they needed Hardik Pandya to drag them to what had become a nervy last-over victory.

The regular first-over headline act was absent from the field of play. Shaheen Afridi was watching on from a VIP box this time, as he is incapacitated by a posterior crucial ligament injury.

Even in his absence, both innings crackled into life. Bhuvneshwar Kumar was tasked with sending down the first set of six this time around.

He may have been some way short of the show-stopper Shaheen delivered last year, when Pakistan shocked India at the same stadium.

But it was still an event that included two reviews and a boundary. Mohammed Rizwan was reprieved after reviewing the second ball of the game, having initially been given out lbw.

India lost their own review on the last ball when they felt – wrongly – Rizwan had edged behind.

Rizwan rode his luck, but his bat was nowhere near as toasty as in that game last year, when he and Babar Azam savaged India to the tune of a 10-wicket win.

Babar went for 10, bounced out in Bhuvneshwar’s second over. Each of Pakistan’s top