T20 World Cup 2021: Match 16, India vs Pakistan – Who Said What

Pakistan hammered India by 10 wickets in Dubai to break their 12-match losing streak in T20 and 50-overs World Cup combined. It took them 13 matches to turn their fate around, but on the night they did, they did it in a style so ruthless that India were found utterly clueless. Chasing 152 needed Pakistan only two batters, as the unbeaten efforts of Mohammad Rizwan (79 off 55) and Babar Azam (68 off 52) saw them home with more than two overs to spare.

India were jolted earlier in the day by Shaheen Afridi’s hostile spell after being put into bat. Afridi’s inswinging yorker pinged Rohit Sharma lbw in the opening over and he returned in the next over to disturb KL Rahul’s stumps. If that was not enough, Suryakumar Yadav, too, perished inside the powerplay, with India entirely on the backfoot. Virat Kohli’s defiant 57 off 49 alongside Rishabh Pant, who scored 39 off 30, did steady India but that were not enough to take them to a winning total.

With the ball, India lacked the wicket-taking precision, with both Rizwan and Babar making hay in the middle and finding boundaries at will. Mohammed Shami looked far from his best, leaking 43 in 3.5 overs, while Varun Chakravarthy and Ravindra Jadeja leaked 61 in their eight overs put together. The end result of their uninspiring performance meant India slipped to their first-ever 10-wicket loss.

Winning skipper Babar Azam:

This was the team’s effort, and the early wickets were very helpful. It gave us a lot of confidence and our spinners were very good as well. We applied our plans and got the results. We, the openers, kept it simple and built a partnership and because the wicket was getting better so we just wanted to keep batting till the end, which we did. It won’t get easier just because we beat India. We will take the confidence, but we’re taking it one match at a time, and there’s a long way to go in the tournament. We prepared well, and just kept the history out of our mind. We needed quality practice, and warm-up matches, and even our domestic tournament and those games gave us a lot of confidence.

Losing skipper Virat Kohli

We didn’t execute properly. Credit where it’s due and Pakistan outplayed us today. 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. It played slow in the first half and hitting through the line was not that easy as it was in the second half, after 10 overs. 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. We could make the argument of getting in another slower bowler, but it’s important to stay composed and understand our strengths, because with the dew the slower bowlers couldn’t be effective either. This is just the first game of the tournament, not the last.

Man of the Match Shaheen Afridi:

It is the good wishes of my parents and all Pakistanis. Very happy with my performance. The plan was to bring the ball back in. I was just trying to swing it and I was just looking to give the team a breakthrough. That was what I practiced in the nets as well yesterday. Batting against the new ball was tough. The credit goes to Babar and Rizwan for the way they played. All teams are good in the tournament and we will look to carry this momentum through and go to the finals.