Nisshin, Oct 3 (IANS): BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia hailed India’s men’s cricket team after their thrilling 19-run win over Pakistan in the Asian Games final, saying the victory highlighted the country’s strength in white-ball cricket.
“It felt very good. A very delightful victory against Pakistan. It is always sweetest when we win the match against Pakistan, especially in all international tournaments. In the Asian Games, another gold came. So, I think India is a superpower in white-ball cricket nowadays,” Saikia told IANS.
India secured consecutive gold medals at the Asian Games in the men’s cricket event after giving a high-quality performance and beating Pakistan at Korogi Sports Park on Saturday.
After winning the toss, captain Shreyas Iyer chose to bat first and India scored a formidable 211 for 6, thanks to Abhishek Sharma’s outstanding 61 off 28 balls and Tilak Varma’s unbeaten 51 off 22.
Although India had lost Vaibhav Sooryavanshi (15) and Sanju Samson (4) early on, Abhishek stepped in during the Powerplay and hit seven sixes and three fours to reach his fifty in just 20 balls, which is the fastest fifty ever scored by an Indian player against Pakistan in T20 internationals.
He finally scored 61 at a strike rate of 217.85, but Tilak and Shivam Dube made sure that India performed well at the end.
They put on 62 runs for the sixth wicket, Tilak finishing the innings without being out on 51 and Dube scoring 27 from 15. The score came about with 18 runs scored in Sufyan Moqim’s over and 23 in Saim Ayub’s, before Dube was bowled off the very first ball of the last over.
Even though the target was very high, Pakistan were never eliminated, mainly due to Hasan Nawaz, who scored 96 off 51 balls in a splendid counterattack.
But in the later parts of the match India’s spinners and all-rounders remained calm. Washington Sundar and Axar Patel kept Pakistan in check during the middle phase before Dube provided the deciding contribution by getting Nawaz out on the very last ball, thereby leaving Pakistan at 192 all out.
The win secured India their second consecutive men’s cricket gold at the Asian Games and ended a strongly successful campaign in the format.
