MELBOURNE: In an arm-biting match between Pakistan and India, the Pakistan cricket team is on top this time as their pace attack helped dismiss Indian openers early on in the opening match of the T20 World Cup at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG).
In T-20 world cup match, the pace ace Naseem got their first wicket for Pakistan cricket team as he dismissed India’s opener, KL Rahul, just for four runs. After a while, in the fourth over, fast bowler Haris Rauf dismissed Rohit Sharma just for (4).
Before the starting of T-20 world cup match, India decided to bat second after skipper Sharma opted for field first. The Pakistan cricket team has set a target of 160 for their rival team of India.
Earlier, Shan Masood scored (52) and Iftikhar Ahmed scored (51) which largely helped the Pakistani team to reach 159 runs against India.
When the match between Pakistan and India started, the Indian team took control of the match very early on by restricting the Pakistani player from scoring and dismissing the dangerous Pakistani opening pair of Babar Azam and Rizwan duo in under five overs.
The Indian fast bowler Arshdeep Singh, in his first ball in the second over, dismissed Pakistani opener, Babar Azam, on (0) with a full, straight, and pinned lbw. Similarly, in the fourth over, Singh — who did not perform very well in the match against Pakistan in the Asia Cup and dropped the important catch — got the big wicket of Rizwan (4).
Masood and Ahmed, who were brought in after the Men in Green’s trusted tandem had been removed, stabilised the innings. Before Ahmed was out, the hitters scored 76 runs together.
Shaheen Shah Afridi also had a significant innings since his rapid boundaries in the final few overs put pressure on India. At a strike rate of 200, he was able to add 16 runs to Pakistan’s total.
Arshdeep Singh and Hardik Pandya led the way for India with each taking three wickets, while Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Mohammed Shami both claimed one victim.
Starting XI
Mohammad Rizwan is the wicketkeeper for Pakistan, along with Babar Azam, Shan Masood, Shadab Khan, Haider Ali, Iftikhar Ahmed, Mohammad Nawaz, Asif Ali, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Naseem Shah, and Haris Rauf.
India: Axar Patel, R Ashwin, Mohammed Shami, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Arshdeep Singh, KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Rohit Sharma (c),
