India Goes Undefeated Again to Secure Ninth Asia Cup Title

And so it’s over. A tournament of political tension underlining the drama of every ball ended in a fittingly thrilling fashion. After two matches between the finalists, round three was surely not going to disappoint. And so it didn’t.

At the toss, India chose to field first, bringing in finisher Rinku Singh for injured Hardik Pandya.

Pakistan started positively and put up a brilliant 84-run opening partnership. Sahibzada Farhan scored a confident 57 before holing out against Varun Chakravarthy.

19 balls later, Kuldeep Yadav ended Saim Ayub’s disappointing Asia Cup for 14(11) and subsequently sparked the collapse.

A Kuldeep triple-wicket over in the 17th over and Jasprit Bumrah’s two wickets at the death gave Pakistan’s middle and lower order no chance to put a total of note.

Pakistan lost a wicket every over from there onwards until the 19th. A capitulation of some pedigree, the Pakistanis lost their commanding position from 113-1 within 13 overs to collapse to 146 all out.

India had all the momentum coming in to bat, but it all stagnated with the tight bowling from Pakistan’s opening bowlers.

India’s dependable Abhishek Sharma fell for a sedate five off five to a slower ball off Faheem Ashraf, compounded with quick wickets of captain and vice-captain Suryakumar Yadav and Shubman Gill to put India on the back foot at 25/3 in five overs.

It took sensible batting from Tilak Varma, Sanju Samson, and Shivam Dube to bring India back on track to chase 147.

With timely sixes off Shivam Dube’s bat, and steady, almost Kohli-esque run-chasing brilliance from the 22-year-old Varma, India won their ninth Asia Cup edition in unbeaten fashion, with five wickets and two balls left.

This is India’s third trophy in the last four limited-over major tournaments, all three of which they won without losing a match, the most recent of which was the Champions Trophy earlier this year.