India’s pacers made excellent use of the helpful Dubai pitch first-up after captain Rohit Sharma won the toss and opted to bowl. Their Pakistani counterparts, too, did a commendable job in spite of cramping up late during India’s reply.

But a target of 148 was a little too moderate to beat this experienced Indian side. In spite of all the pressure that the Pakistan bowlers had put on them, Ravindra Jadeja (35) and Hardik Pandya (33 not out), who’s in the form of his life, brought all their experience into play and held their nerves guiding India to a hard-earned five-wicket win in Sunday’s Asia Cup Group A game at a packed Dubai International Stadium.

Executing the shortpitched stuff brilliantly, Pandya (3/25) had done a fine job with the ball too along with Bhuvneshwar Kumar (4/26) as India bundled Pakistan out for 147 in 19.5 overs. All 10 Pakistani wickets fell to India’s fast bowlers, which certainly was a creditable effort from the group that’s without pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah.

But 19-year-old debutant Naseem Shah (2/27) bowled an excellent first over to give some hope to Pakistan. Knocking over KL Rahul in just the second ball of India’s reply, Shah almost got milestone man Virat Kohli (35), who made his 100th T20I appearance, out too but Fakhar Zaman dropped him at the slip cordon.

After left-arm spinner Mohammad Nawaz (3/33) got rid of Rohit and Kohli in quick succession, Shah returned in his second spell to castle Suryakumar Yadav as the latter was trying to stitch a partnership with Jadeja, who was promoted up to No.4. The going didn’t get any easier for the Indians, but till Jadeja and Pandya were out there, they could keep breathing easy.

But at a critical stage of the game, Shah and his pace colleagues struggled with cramps while the slow over rate forced Pakistan to keep a fielder less in the deep, something India too had to do with a late over rate in the first half. But more than that, Shah cramping up was massive in the context of the game as his inability to bowl at full pace helped Jadeja launch him for a six in the 18th over of India’s run chase.

India needed 21 off the last two overs and Pandya then took on Haris Rauf, hitting him for three boundaries in the penultimate over. Only seven were needed off the final over thereafter.

For a spinner to bowl the final over of an innings is never easy, but Pakistan had no other option due to captain Babar Azam’s miscalculation. Yet, they kept the pressure on India as Nawaz cleaned up Jadeja off the first ball of the last over. But Pandya doesn’t seem to be doing anything wrong lately. With six needed off the last three balls, Nawaz pitched it short and Pandya swung his bat smoothly as the ball sailed over long-on for a maximum, earning India a victory in the cracker of a contest with two balls to spare.

Prize scalp

With Bumrah unavailable, the onus was on Bhuvneshwar to prevent Pakistan’s strong opening duo of Mohammad Rizwan (43) and Babar from getting off to a strong start. The senior pro did his job to perfection. He kept Rizwan quiet and then brought the bouncer in to play to dismiss Babar, before Pandya too kept digging it short successfully. After that prized scalp of Babar, Bhuvneshwar bowled his cutters and variations to strike in the slog overs too, pegging Pakistan back further.