3 months ago
1
The Indian juggernaut rolled connected adjacent arsenic the rains that were forecast stayed distant astatine the R. Premadasa Stadium successful Colombo connected an electrical Sunday (February 15, 2026). The defending champion rode connected Ishan Kishan’s muscular 77 and its potent onslaught to decision Pakistan by 61 runs successful the ICC T20 World Cup Group A match. The triumph besides helped India suffice for the Super Eight stage.
After posting 175 for seven, Suryakumar Yadav’s men bowled retired Pakistan for 114 successful 18 overs. The pursuit was successful a shambles erstwhile Sahibzada Farhan, Saim Ayub and captain Salman Agha were backmost successful the hut with a specified 13 connected the board. Hardik, with a wicket and a catch, and Bumrah, 2 wickets successful his kitty, were the archetypal speed-breakers for the rivals.
Pakistan’s woes extended as Babar Azam recovered Axar Patel sliding 1 into his stumps. Meanwhile, Usman Khan waged a lone battle, striking cleanly down the ground. But erstwhile helium succumbed to Axar, with Kishan whipping the bails off, Pakistan was down for the count.
Earlier, Agha won the toss, elected to field, and recovered the people done his spinning arm. Abhishek Sharma, backmost successful the Indian playing XI, miscued a propulsion and India was 1 for 1 aft the archetypal over.
But determination were nary premature nerves arsenic Kishan (77, 40b, 10x4, 3x6) smote pacer Shaheen Afridi’s archetypal shot for six. The opener played his shots with conviction, and adjacent erstwhile a fewer edges raced past the ropes, helium refused to crook conservative. The southpaw remained busy, pulling, gliding, hoisting and driving past 50 arsenic nary portion of the crushed was beyond his reach.
A spin-heavy Pakistan onslaught struggled to stifle Kishan portion his spouse Tilak Varma stayed connected 10 for a while. Having reverse-hit Saim, Kishan tried to unit 1 connected the off-side and got castled but by past helium had acceptable a beardown basal for India. A bustling Suryakumar deed a 4 disconnected Usman Tariq, Tilak exhaled with a six disconnected Mohammad Nawaz and India cruised.
A little stutter occurred erstwhile Tilak and Hardik fell disconnected successive deliveries against Saim. Shivam Dube averted the hat-trick and on with his skipper, eased into a concern based connected singles and elevated by the unusual 4 and six.
Even aft Suryakumar fell to Tariq, Dube remained engaged and contempt India losing 2 much batters successful the death, determination was capable and much to enactment up of Pakistan for the remainder of the night.
