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India got their Asia Cup 2022 campaign off to a positive start with a five-wicket win over arch-rivals Pakistan. 

Hardik Pandya shone with the bat (33 not out) and ball (3/25) to help the Men in Blue get the better of Pakistan in a low-scoring game. As for Pakistan, Mohammed Rizwan was the top batter with 43 runs off 42 balls while newcomer Mohammad Nawaz grabbed 3/33 on debut. 

India won the toss and opted to field first. Rohit Sharma rang in a few surprises as they picked Dinesh Karthik over Rishabh Pant and left Ravichandran Ashwin out of the playing XI. 

On the other hand, Pakistan handed Naseem Shah his international debut while Shahnawaz Dahani was among the three fast bowlers selected for the crunch fixture. 

The first over saw Pakistan post 6/0, with Mohammad Rizwan surviving two calls for dismissals. Rizwan reviewed and got an LBW decision reversed as it missed the stumps, while India’s review for an outside edge went against their favour. 

Pakistan captain Babar Azam was the first to depart, as Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s short ball took a top edge towards Arshdeep Singh at short fine leg. 

The powerplay phase ended at 43/2, with Pakistan losing their second wicket at 5.5 overs. Fakhar Zaman, convinced that his bat took a faint nick off the Avesh Khan delivery and sailed towards Dinesh Karthik, walked back to the pavilion even before the umpire raised his finger. 

Hardik Pandya broke the 45-run stand between Rizwan and Iftikhar Ahmed for the third wicket. Trying to lift the Pandya delivery over, Iftikhar’s bat took a top-edge straight towards Dinesh Karthik. 

Hardik would add a couple of wickets to his haul with the key dismissals of Mohammad Rizwan and Khusdil Shah. Both deliveries were short balls as India claimed authority in the first half of the fixture. 

Pakistan crossed the 100-run mark in 14.4 overs. 

Bhuvi’s three wickets and a two-wicket haul from Arshdeep Singh in the death overs propelled India to bowl out Pakistan for 147. 

As far as records go, this is the first instance of Indian pacers grabbing all 10 wickets in an innings. 

Debutant Naseem Shah dealt the initial blow to India, as his delivery took an inside edge of KL Rahul’s and hit the stumps. The Men in Blue ended the first over at 3/1. 

While India reached 50 in the eighth over, Rohit miscued Mohammad Nawaz’s delivery towards long-off. Iftikhar Ahmed completed the catch to end the Indian captain’s innings. 

Nawaz would strike once again as he claimed the important wicket of Virat Kohli. The former India captain’s shot straight down towards long-off found the safe hands of Iftikhar, with the dismissal ending Kohli’s knock of 35 runs in 34 balls. 

Naseem claimed his second wicket of the night with Suryakumar Yadav, his victim. The young Pakistan pacer bowled a back-of-a-length delivery through Sky’s batting stance and knocked out the off stump. 

With seven runs needed off the final over, Nawaz bowled out Ravindra Jadeja on the very first ball. His flat and quick delivery brushed Jadeja’s back thigh before hitting the stumps. 

Hardik Pandya, having stitched a pivotal 52-run stand for the sixth wicket, hit the winning runs with a confident six. 

The victory means India avenged their 10-wicket loss to Pakistan in their ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2021 encounter.

Rohit Sharma’s India will face Hong Kong in their next Asia Cup 2022 group stage game on Wednesday, August 31st.