{"id":170486,"date":"2025-09-26T13:54:24","date_gmt":"2025-09-26T13:54:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/170486\/"},"modified":"2025-09-26T13:54:24","modified_gmt":"2025-09-26T13:54:24","slug":"pakistan-must-focus-on-cricket-not-india-in-asia-cup-final-cricket-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/170486\/","title":{"rendered":"Pakistan must \u2018focus on cricket\u2019 not India in Asia Cup final | Cricket News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pakistan will face favourites and holder India in an Asia Cup final, heavily overshadowed by recent political tensions.<\/p>\n

Published On 26 Sep 202526 Sep 2025<\/p>\n

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Pakistan head coach Mike Hesson called on his players to focus on cricket when they face India in the Asia Cup final on Sunday, after the previous two meetings between the sides caused tensions to run high.<\/p>\n

Pakistan set up a first meeting with India in an Asia Cup final following a hard-fought 11-run win over Bangladesh<\/a> in a Super Four match in Dubai on Thursday.<\/p>\n

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Hesson played down the bitterness that marred the past two India-Pakistan matches<\/a> in this edition of the Asia Cup \u2013 their first meetings since May\u2019s military conflict between the two countries.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook, my message to the players is just focus on cricket and that certainly we will be doing. In terms of gestures there has always been passion in terms of high-pressure games,\u201d said New Zealander Hesson.<\/p>\n

India refused to shake hands with Pakistan after the first game and the two sides also did not shake hands after the second.<\/p>\n

Indian captain Suryakumar Yadav was accused of making a political statement after the first match, while Pakistan opener Sahibzada Farhan and pacer Haris Rauf made aggressive gestures in the second.<\/p>\n

India comfortably had the better of Pakistan in the two previous matches, beating them by seven wickets in their Group A match and by six wickets at the Super Four stage.<\/p>\n

That stretched India\u2019s unbeaten run against Pakistan to seven international matches dating back to 2022 \u2013 three one-day internationals and four T20Is.<\/p>\n

Hesson said his team needs to be relentless against world champions India if they are to taste victory in the final.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to be good enough to put India under pressure for longer because there is a reason why they are ranked the top side in the world,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to put them under pressure and that will be our challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"India'sIndia\u2019s Suryakumar Yadav issues instructions on the field in the second match against Pakistan at the 2025 Asia Cup [Satish Kumar\/Reuters]<\/p>\n

Pakistan managed a paltry 127-9 in the first match, which India chased down for the loss of just three wickets.<\/p>\n

Pakistan fared much better in the second encounter but still lost by six wickets.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the way we played against India in the last match was a huge step up from the first game,\u201d said Hesson, a former New Zealand coach.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first game was a bit passive; we allowed India to control the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe last match we had that game by the scruff of the neck for long periods, and it took an exceptional innings from Abhishek Sharma that took the game away from us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sharma hit a match-winning 39-ball 74 to help India chase down a 172-run target.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have deserved this opportunity, so it\u2019s now up to us to make the most of it,\u201d added Hesson.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have been trying to be in a position to win the trophy.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pakistan will face favourites and holder India in an Asia Cup final, heavily overshadowed by recent political tensions.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":170487,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[1724,64,63,740,1209,44,15299,588,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-170486","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cricket","8":"tag-asia","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-cricket","12":"tag-india","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-pakistan","15":"tag-sport","16":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=170486"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170486\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/170487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=170486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=170486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=170486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}