ISLAMABAD ; Sept 3: A high voltage match between Pakistan and India for Asia Cup 2023 ended without result due to rains in Kandy, Sri Lanka .
India win the toss and opted to bat . It gave Pakistan a target of 267 runs, India could not complete 50 over as its last batter got out in the last over.
Pakistan could not get a chance to bat due to heavy rains.Shaheen Shah Afridi opened the bowling for Pakistan and in the initial overs, Indian batsmen started confidently and moved score slowly. The rains interrupted the play at this stage. When the match resumed after one and half hours, Shaheen Shah Afridi bowled Indian captain Rohit Sharma. Shaheen Afridi continued his streak of bowling and took wickets of Virat Kohli.
Haris Rauf was introduced to the bowling, Shreyas Iyer welcomed him with two fours, but in the next over, the fast bowler retaliated by sending him to the pavilion. India lost 3 wickets for 48 runs in 10 overs.
Shubman Gill struggled throughout the inning and eventually his inning of 10 runs off 32 balls was brought to an end by Haris Rauf, The young batsman Ishan Kishan completed his half-century in 54 balls with the help of 7 fours and a six, showing responsible batting. Both the players played well under pressure and put on a brilliant partnership of 138 runs for the fifth wicket.
Haris Rauf once again gave the team a major win by getting Ishan Kishan going, who scored 82 runs before being dismissed. Hardik Pandya continued his smoky batting from the other end and hit Haris Rauf for three fours in an over that looked like he would be on course for his maiden ODI century, but Shaheen Shah Afridi bowled him out for 87 runs.
Naseem Shah bowled out Shirdal Thakur on the very first ball of the next over. Kuldeep Yadav and Jasprit Bumrah took the score to 261 but on the same score, the spinner was caught by the wicketkeeper. Bumrah hits Naseem Shah for a boundary and in an attempt to hit a six on the next ball, he was caught by Agha Salman at the boundary.
The entire Indian team was bowled out for 266 runs,
Shaheen Shah Afridi took 4 wickets while Haris Rauf and Naseem Shah took three wickets each.
At this stage, the rains interrupted the match and the match. The umpires inspected the ground several times and finally due to continuous rains and wet outfield, they decided to end the match with the mutual consent of both the captains.
As the match ended in a draw, both teams got one point each. Earlier after winning the toss, Indian team captain Rohit Sharma said that the weather is a bit (cloudy) but we are not thinking too much about it, we had a 6-day camp in Bangalore where we honed our skills. He said that Asia Cup is a quality tournament, with good teams, we need to think about what we can do here.
National team captain Babar Azam said that we also wanted to bat first, we have played a lot of cricket here during the last one and a half months, so we know the conditions.
The weather forecasting agency Acuweather had indicated a 58% chance of rain at 3 pm local time and said that the weather will remain clear for the next 3 hours till 6 pm, but it is likely to rain again from 7 pm. May continue till 11 pm. The report said that during the day there will be dense clouds and humidity in the air, with the possibility of rain, the weather is expected to remain mostly cloudy with rain and drizzle in the evening,thunderstorms and light winds are forecast, with an 80 percent chance of rain at 3:30 PM.
Pakistan playing XI against India:
Fakhr Zaman, Imam-ul-Haq, Babar Azam, Muhammad Rizwan, Agha Salman, Iftikhar Ahmed, Shadab Khan, Muhammad Nawaz, Shaheen Afridi, Naseem Shah, Haris Rauf.
India’s playing XI against Pakistan:
Rohit Sharma (captain), Shibman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Ishan Kishan, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammad Siraj, Jasprit Bumrah
