Online Desk: Rain washed out the highly anticipated India-Pakistan match in the Asia Cup at the Pallekele International Cricket Stadium in Sri Lanka’s Kandy on Saturday. Umpires had to call the match off as it was continuously raining in Kandy. As a result, both teams now have to be happy with sharing their points. With three point in the table, Pakistan have qualified for the Super Four stage from group A.
Earlier, India set a target of 267 runs before Pakistan on the basis of the partnership between Ishan Kishan and Hardik Pandya. After winning the toss, Indian captain Rohit Sharma decided to bat first in the bating friendly wicket. But their top order batsmen did not able to execute the plan as they lost four wickets within just 66 runs.
Then Ishan Kishan and Hardik Pandya came in to the crease and made a rescuing partnership of 138 runs. At one stage, the score cross the 200 mark in the 37th over and they eyed on to cross the 300 mark also. But in the very next over Kishan departed and the flow of run went tardy. After that, wickets kept falling in a regular interval and the team ended in 266 runs.
Both Kishan and Pandya brings their fifties and ended with 82 and 87 runs respectively. Apart from the duo, no Indian batsman were able stand before the Pakistani bowlers as four top order batsmen like Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli and Shreyas Iyer managed to score 11, 10, 4 and 14 runs respectively. On the other hand, Shaheen Afridi was the pick of the bowlers from Pakistan as he bagged four wickets conceding just 35 runs in 10 overs. Naseem Shah and Haris Rauf picked up three wickets each conceding 36 and 58 runs respectively.
In this match, India had brought in two changes from their last series in West Indies. Shreyas Iyer and Jasprit Bumrah make a return to the side. Meanwhile, Pakistan had fielded an unchanged eleven from the one that won against Nepal. India had began their Asia Cup campaign with this game while Pakistan had already got off to a tremendous start by thrashing tournament debutants Nepal by 238 runs in their first game.