India had to toil for 34.1 overs for their first wicket against Hong Kong. 20 hours later, they had two inside 25 balls against a much-better batting unit of Pakistan. Bhuvneshwar Kumar first found the outside edge of Imam-Ul-Haq in his second over and then forced India’s Champions Trophy nemesis Fakhar Zaman into an uncharacteristic heave in his next over to reduce Pakistan to 3 for 2.
One could well draw the conclusion that Hong Kong’s highest-ever partnership actually did India a huge favour. For it gave them the perfect shake-up before an important Pakistan game. The lines of the seamers were perfect, the in-between lengths did not allow the batsmen to get on top and when Pakistan finally appeared to rebuild, Kedar Jadhav’s off-spin came like an out of syllabus question as India bowled Pakistan out for 162 in 43.1 overs.
In complete contrast to the Hong Kong match, India were on top right from the onset. Kumar was back to his usual best. One can easily give him the benefit of doubt for having an off day on his return to cricket after an injury lay-off last night. Jasprit Bumrah, coming into the side in place of Shardul Thakur, gave nothing away, bowled two maidens straight up to build the pressure on Fakhar Zaman. Pakistan were left with no choice but to play out the new ball. To be fair to them, they did that through Shoaib Malik and Babar Azam, slowly getting up after being flattened by the two early blows.
The duo put on 82 runs for the third wicket before Kuldeep Yadav’s wrong’un breached Azam’s (47) defence to crash onto his off stump. Then it was over to Jadhav, who like the other night, first put the brakes and then struck. Jadhav's performance is even more laudable as he did the job of a frontline spinner after Hardik Pandya (0/24 in 4.5 overs) was stretchered off the field due to an acute lower back injury.
Pakistan captain Sarfraz Ahmed (6) was Jadhav’s first victim when he tried to break the shackles by going over the top but substitute fielder Manish Pandey took a blinder at long-on.
The inexperienced Pakistani middle order then found it extremely difficult to read Jadhav's round-arm action as he bowled straight and wide. Asif Ali fell to one of those wide ones and then Malik (43) was run-out by a direct throw from Ambati Rayudu. The former Pakistan captain failed to capitalise on the two reprieves he got earlier.
It was pretty much one-way traffic after that. Shadab Khan (8) was stumped by Dhoni becoming Jadhav's third victim of the match. He returned with staggering figures of 3 for 23 in his 9 overs.
Faheem and Aamir did try their bit helping Pakistan cross the 150-run mark but Bhuvneshwar and Bumrah wrapped up the tail in the 44th over.