Twitter Reactions: Pakistan post only 237 despite Shoaib Malik's heroics

India and Pakistan faced off for the second time in four days in the ongoing Asia Cup and this encounter had more context to it with a place in the final beckoning for both the teams. The Men in Green put up an improved performance this time around after opting to bat first but failed to post a par total despite Shoaib Malik bringing his experience to the fore for the second time in as many matches.

The opening duo of Fakhar Zaman and Imam-ul-Haq started cautiously against India’s new ball bowlers. The former ate up too many deliveries up front after which Rohit Sharma brought Yuzvendra Chahal into the attack in the eighth over. The move worked almost immediately as Imam was nipped out lbw thanks to MS Dhoni who prompted the skipper to take the review.

Pakistan panicked then with the wicket of Fakhar Zaman who got himself into a tangle while playing a sweep shot and then Babar Azam was involved in a mix-up with his skipper Sarfraz Ahmed.

Malik comes to the fore

At 58/3, Pakistan were once again going down like the nine pins. But Shoaib Malik brought some calmness to the middle and Sarfraz also played well. Both of them steadily rebuilt the innings by rotating the strike but the run-rate never harmed India. Malik was severe against any bad deliveries which very few from the Indian bowlers. They added 107 runs for the fourth wicket stand as Sarfraz was sent back by Kuldeep Yadav.

The arrival of Asif Ali then gave the much-needed impetus to the run-scoring as he plundered Bhuvneshwar Kumar for 22 runs in a single over. Meanwhile, Malik brought up the 43rd half-century of his career and was looking to up the ante. But once his wicket fell, Pakistan once again slowed down.

Chahal and Bumrah didn’t give even an inch to the batsmen at the death and Bhuvi also ended his spell well to restrict their arch-rivals to 237 for the loss of seven wickets after 50 overs. It was only due to Malik’s 78-run knock that they reached the respectable total and it will be interesting to see if it will test the Indian batsmen.

Here’s how Twitter reacted during the innings:

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