Mohammad Rizwan (79 not out off 55 balls) and Babar Azam(68 not out off 52 balls) displayed wonderful batsmanship to help Pakistancrush India by ten wickets in a Group 2 match in Super 12 stage of the ICCMen's T20 World Cup at the Dubai International Stadium here on Sunday.
Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan have gotten Pakistan offto a brisk start. Both remained unbeaten and striked a perfect balance againstIndia. Mohd Rizwan scored 79 runs and Babar Azam 66.
Pakistan has never won a T20 World cup by 10 wickets,this is the first time they defeated a team by 10 wickets. Also, it's the first time Pakistan defeated India in World Cup.
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Chasing 151, Pakistan got off to an impressive start with43 runs for no loss in power-play. Rizwan began by carting Bhuvneshwar Kumarfor back-to-back boundaries in the opening over. In the next over, Azam startedoff with a glorious back-foot drive off Mohammed Shami. Shami came under attackin the fifth over as Azam and Rizwan took a four each.
India did tighten the screws by not conceding boundariesin the sixth, seventh and eighth overs. But Azam broke the boundary-less spellwith a pull over cow corner off Ravindra Jadeja in the ninth over. From thereonwards, Azam and Rizwan played risk-free cricket by rotating the strike andpunishing the bad balls by dispatching them to the boundary rope.
It was one-way traffic as India had no answers toclinical batting from Pakistan's openers, especially with dew coming into thepicture. Azam reached his half-century with a gigantic six over deep mid-wicketoff Varun Chakravarthy in the 13th over. Two overs later, Rizwan too reachedthe fifty-mark with a pull through cow corner off Jasprit Bumrah in the 15thover.
Rizwan began the 18th over by hammering Shami for a sixover fine leg followed by back-to-back fours through the leg-side. Azamfinished off the chase with a brace, ending Pakistan's hoodoo against India'inmen's T20 World Cups with 13 balls to spare.
Brief Scores: India 151/7 in 20 overs (Virat Kohli 57,Rishabh Pant 39, Shaheen Afridi 3/31, Hasan Ali 2/44) lost to Pakistan 152/0 in17.5 overs (Mohammad Rizwan 79 not out, Babar Azam 68 not out) by ten wickets.