India vs Pakistan: 5 moments that tilted the scales in favour of Men in Blue

Indian pacer, who was struggling to find form with the ball, finally delivered when it was needed with dismissals of Pakistan’s opening pair of Imam-Ul-Haq and Fakhar Zaman. Prior to the Asia Cup clash between India and Pakistan on Wednesday, Imam had scored two centuries in his previous three innings. On the other hand, Fakhar was the Player of the Match of ICC Champions Trophy 2017, which India had lost. Hence, these early dismissals put India ahead at the very beginning of the innings. Bhuvi ended with figures of 3 for 15 in 7 overs. PC: PTI

Shoaib maintaining his strong reputation of always playing well against these opponents added 82 runs for the third wicket with Babar Azam. It was the 27th over; Asif Ali tapped the ball to cover-point and sprinted for a single. Ambati Rayudu attacked the ball, picked it up and hit the bull’s eye at the bowler’s end as Shoaib tried to drag it back in. He didn’t even try to dive in and as a result fell short of the crease. PC: AFP

Manish Pandey, who is yet to get a game in the ongoing Asia Cup, was called in as a substitute fielder after Hardik Pandya was stretchered out due to a lower back injury. Soon after Babar Azam was dismissed, Pakistan needed its skipper to stay on and build a crucial partnership. However, Sarfraz couldn’t resist cutting a full ball from Kedar Jhadav. While Sarfraz suggested Manish Pandey took an absolute stunner at wide long on. PC: AFP

There was hardly any moment during Pakistan’s innings when Kedar wasn’t involved. Although everyone have been crediting Manish Pandey for Sarfraz’s dismissal, one must not ignore the bowler and it was none other than Kedar. He followed that with two more scalps when he dismissed Asif Ali and Shadab Khan. PC: AFP

Although the target was just 163 runs, in a game of cricket anything is possible and which is why it was crucial that Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan gave India the required start. The two exactly did that as India lost its first wicket only at 86 for 1. After scoring a superb half-century, Rohit got out off an excellent googly slipped through his defence from the young spinner Shadab Khan. Eventually, Dhawan also got out but the two had done their job by then as India managed a comfortable eight-wicket win over arch-rivals Pakistan on Wednesday. PC: AFP