and then on again<\/a> became one where a parade of Pakistan batters were dramatically in and then out again. Chasing a target of 176 they were seven down before they even got halfway, and were eventually skittled for 114 to lose by 61 runs.<\/p>\nKishan\u2019s innings was a glorious anomaly, the 27-year-old thriving on a surface with which few came to terms. Only one other player struck more than three fours; Kishan hit 10. No one else produced more than a single six; Kishan managed three. In all he hit 77 runs off 40 balls, the extent to which he stood out illustrated by the fact that when he was dismissed he had scored 88.5% of his team\u2019s runs.<\/p>\n
\u201cIshan thought something out of the box. Someone needed to take responsibility and he did that amazingly,\u201d Suryakumar Yadav, the India captain, said.<\/p>\n
Pakistan won the toss and very little else. Yadav said he had been planning to bat first anyway, but for Salman Agha a turning pitch was a gift that he could not wait to unwrap. The Pakistan captain insisted on getting his hands on it before anyone else, bowling himself at the start of the match \u2013 the first time in eight games this year that he has bowled at all \u2013 and for a few halcyon moments his team were on top.<\/p>\n
That opening over brought only one run and the wicket of Abhishek Sharma, who came into the tournament as the most feared batter in world cricket but in two World Cup appearances has now faced five balls and not scored. Perhaps things would have been different had Salman\u2019s luck not flipped in his second over, when Kishan twice miscued the ball into the air: the first time it flew just too far for the fielder at backward point to reach, the second it flew not quite far enough for the man at long-on to catch.<\/p>\n
Pakistan\u2019s array of spinners \u2013 they bowled only two overs of seam \u2013 rarely discomforted Kishan after that. \u201cOur spinners had an off day,\u201d Salman said. \u201cThe pitch played better in the second innings but we did not bowl according to the situation and we did not apply ourselves with the bat.\u201d<\/p>\n
Babar Azam (right) is bowled by Axar Patel for five as Pakistan\u2019s top order collapses against India. Photograph: Lahiru Harshana\/Reuters<\/p>\n
But while Kishan was motoring at nearly two runs a ball, Tilak Varma at the other end was barely managing one, as did Yadav after his dismissal. It was clear from those batters\u2019 travails that India had posted a challenging target, and Pakistan\u2019s chances of overhauling it existed only briefly. It would be tempting to note that their response started in the worst possible fashion were it not for the fact that if anything it got worse after that.<\/p>\n
Hardik Pandya started and finished it, opening proceedings with a wicket maiden, and ending them by ripping out Usman Tariq\u2019s middle stump with the last ball of the 18th over. Jasprit Bumrah bowled the second over of the innings and after he dismissed Saim Ayub with his second ball, a brilliant inswinging yorker, for the second time in the game Salman was required to lead by example. He flubbed his fourth delivery, in a slow and miserable arc, to Pandya at mid-on. Realistically, for Pakistan to have stood any kind of chance, they needed their top four to produce at least one lasting partnership. Those key batters combined scored 15 off 17.<\/p>\n
Victory confirms the co-hosts\u2019 qualification for the Super Eights with a game to spare, and if the extent of this defeat means that, with one game to play, Pakistan sit below USA in the Group A standings on net run rate, however, they will only surrender their place in the next round if they lose their final match to Namibia across town at the Sinhalese Sports Club on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a game in a couple of days and we have to look forward to it,\u201d Salman said. \u201cWe need to win that and qualify. Then it is a new tournament.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A day of no handshakes, and for Pakistan many head shakes. India coasted to victory in what became…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":483329,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,85],"class_list":["post-483328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cricket","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483328","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=483328"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483328\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/483329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=483328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=483328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=483328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}