Team India mentor MS Dhoni was seen interacting with Pakistan’s Imad Wasim and Shoaib Malik after India suffered a thrashing 10-wicket loss in Dubai on October 24. With the victory, Pakistan snapped their 12-match losing streak against their Asian rivals in T20 World Cup and ODI World Cup combined. After being asked to bat, India was reduced for 31/3 inside the powerplay owing to a brilliant spell of Shaheen Afridi, who dismissed both Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul in successive overs of his spell.
In the final over of the powerplay, India also lost Suryakumar Yadav, who nicked Hasan Ali behind before a half-century stand between Virat Kohli and Rishabh Pant restored sanity. The Indian skipper played a gritty knock of 57 in 49 balls before being dismissed towards the fag end of the Indian innings to give Afridi his third scalp for the night, while Rishabh Pant was dismissed by Shadab Khan earlier after a well-made 39 off 30.
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However, the horrific start meant that the men in blue only managed to reach a decent score of 151/7. During the chase, Pakistan was rather flawless as they kept hammering the Indian bowling attack by making a record unbeaten stand between openers Mohammad Rizwan and Babar Azam took their team home with 2.1 overs to spare.
Beautiful Picture 🇵🇰 #INDvPAK pic.twitter.com/hd6282pffG
— Ihtisham Ul Haq (@iihtishamm) October 24, 2021
Virat Kohli and his men didn’t have a lot of chances in the game after being put on the back foot from the outset.
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Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan stitched together a dominating partnership of 152 runs for the opening wicket off 17.5 overs as Pakistan chased the target down with relative ease. While Babar stayed unbeaten on 68, Rizwan played a fiery knock of 79. Following Pakistan’s win, Kohli was seen having a chat with the Pakistan openers and lauding them for their performances.
Virat Kohli appreciating Babar Azam and Rizwan. After all, this is a game. Always nice to see this mutual respect. pic.twitter.com/ouVH9gWISr
— Johns. (@CricCrazyJohns) October 24, 2021
After the loss, Virat Kohli, “We didn’t execute properly. They started brilliantly with the ball, and 3 wickets for 20 runs was not a good start. We needed wickets early but with the bat, they gave us absolutely no chances. We needed those 15-20 extra runs and for that, we needed a good start but Pakistan’s bowling didn’t allow us to get those extra runs. It’s important to stay composed and understand our strengths because with the dew the slower bowlers couldn’t be effective either.”
