India vs Pakistan, Asia Cup 2022 Match 2, Stats Review: Virat Kohli’s milestone match, Indian pacers' feat, and other stats

Hardik Pandya’s all-round brilliance and Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s spell helped team India in defeating arch-rivals Pakistan by five wickets in Match 2 of Asia Cup 2022 in Dubai. Pandya took three wickets for 25 runs in his four-over spell and then remained unbeaten on 33 off 17 to guide India home in a thrilling Indo-Pak encounter. Seam bowler Bhuvneshwar snared four scalps for just 26 runs as Pakistan got restricted to just 147 in 19.5 overs.

Speaking about how the high-voltage clash panned out, skipper Rohit Sharma won the toss and elected to field first. Bhuvneshwar got rid of the big fish Babar Azam for just ten while hard-hitter Fakhar Zaman also managed to score as many runs. Wicketkeeper-batter Mohammad Rizwan kept going before falling for 43 off 42 to Hardik. Iftikhar Ahmed scored 28 off 22 while no other player looked in touch for the Men in Green. Bowler Shahnawaz Dahani struck 16 off just six which included two sixes to take his side to a total of above 145.

In reply, KL Rahul bagged a golden duck as he got bowled to Naseem Shah on the second delivery of the innings. Captain Rohit struggled for his 18-ball 12 while Virat Kohli, who was playing his 100th T20I, amassed 35 off 34. Suryakumar Yadav mustered a run-a-ball 18 while Ravindra Jadeja held the innings together. He got dismissed in the last over before scoring 35 off 29 with two fours and as many maximums. Hardik played a blitz innings of 33 as he hit the winning six to seal a victory for his team over arch-rivals Pakistan. He grabbed the Player-of-the-Match award for his all-round prowess that got the job done for the Men in Blue.

Meanwhile, here are some of the important stats and numbers from Match 2 between India and Pakistan in the Asia Cup 2022:

 100 – Virat Kohli appeared in his landmark 100th T20 international match. He became the first Indian and second overall after Ross Taylor to play 100 matches in all three formats.

4/26 – Bhuvneshwar Kumar recorded the best bowling performance of 4/26 for India against Pakistan in T20Is. The previous best was 3/8 by Hardik Pandya in Mirpur in 2016.

8.40 – Fakhar Zaman has now scored 42 runs in his last five T20I innings at an average of just 8.40 with the highest score of 12.

1 – For the first time, the Indian pacers took all ten wickets in a T20I innings.

82 – Rohit Sharma has managed to score just 82 runs in eight innings at an average of 13.66 and a strike rate of 112.32 against Pakistan.

52 – Hardik Pandya and Ravindra Jadeja registered the highest fifth-wicket partnership of 52 for India against Pakistan. The previous best was 46 by MS Dhoni and Robin Uthappa in Durban in 2007.

9 – Bhuvneshwar has now taken the most wickets (9) for India against Pakistan in the T20 internationals. He went past Irfan Pathan and Hardik Pandya’s tally of six and seven wickets respectively.

15 – Teams batting second have won 15 out of the last 16 T20I encounters in Dubai.

8 – India scripted their eighth victory over Pakistan out of the ten T20Is played.

2 – KL Rahul registered his second golden duck in 53 T20I innings. His previous one came against Zimbabwe in Harare in the year 2016.

4 – Hardik Pandya also delivered his fourth-best performance of 3/25 in the shortest international format. His spells of 4/33 and 4/38 against England in 2022 and 2018 respectively and 3/8 against Pakistan in 2016 are in the top three.

1 – Rohit has now smashed the most runs (3499) in T20 internationals. He surpassed Martin Guptill’s tally of 3497 runs.

4 – Bhuvneshwar recorded his fourth-best bowling figures of 4/26 in the format. His top three spells are 5/24 against South Africa in 2018, 4/13 against the Proteas this year, and 4/22 against Sri Lanka in the year 2021.