India beat Pakistan by 6 wickets based on Virat Kohli’s first century in the Champions Trophy. Kohli scored an unbeaten 100, Shreyas Iyer and Shubman Gill well supported him. In bowling, Kuldeep Yadav took 3 and Hardik Pandya took 2 wickets.
On Sunday in Dubai, Pakistan won the toss and chose to bat. The team was all out after scoring 241 runs in 49.4 overs. India accomplished the target by losing 4 wickets in 42.3 overs. This is India’s second win in the tournament. The team also defeated Bangladesh by 6 wickets on Thursday. With the second consecutive defeat, Pakistan is on the verge of being eliminated from the tournament. The team has one match left against Bangladesh.
India lost the first wicket in the 5th over. Rohit Sharma was out after scoring 20 runs. Virat Kohli, who came at number 3, batted cautiously. He made a partnership of 69 runs with Shubman Gill and 114 runs with Shreyas Iyer. Kohli stayed till the end. He completed his century by hitting a four against Khushdil Shah in the 43rd over and also gave the team victory.
Virat scored his 51st century in ODIs and 82nd century in international cricket. He became the first player in the world to score a century against Pakistan in the Asia Cup, ODI World Cup, and Champions Trophy. With this century, he also completed 14,500 runs in ODIs and 27,500 runs in international cricket.
Hero of victory
Hardik Pandya: Hardik gave the first wicket to Team India. He got Babar Azam caught by the wicketkeeper. Then he also took the big wicket of Saud Shakeel who had scored a fifty.
Kuldeep Yadav: After not taking a single wicket in the first 5 overs, Kuldeep got Salman Aga caught. He then also took the wickets of Shaheen Afridi and Naseem Shah.
Shreyas Iyer: After losing 2 wickets for 100 runs, Shreyas took over the innings. He hit a fifty and made an important partnership of 114 runs with Kohli.
Reason for defeat
Lack of spinners: Pakistan gave a chance to only one full-time spinner Abrar Ahmed in the playing-11. They took 1 wicket for 28 runs in 10 overs. The other spinners couldn’t support him. The team did not even keep leg-spin all-rounder Shadab Khan in the squad.
Slow batting: After losing 2 wickets in the powerplay, Pakistan batted very slowly in the middle overs. Mohammad Rizwan and Saud Shakeel partnered for 104 runs in 144 balls. The team could only score 131 runs in 180 balls between 11 and 40 overs.
Fighter of the Match
Pakistan lost 2 wickets in the powerplay. Here Mohammad Rizwan and Saud Shakeel took over the innings. Both added 104 runs for the third wicket. Saud scored the only fifty from the team, he scored 62 runs, but he did not get support from any player from the other end. Due to this the team could not score big and India won the match easily.
Turning Point
India had lost 2 wickets for 100 runs. Here Shreyas Iyer took over the innings with Virat Kohli. Shreyas batted fast and scored 56 runs in 67 balls. He made a partnership of 114 runs with Kohli and brought the team close to victory. When Shreyas was out, the team needed just 28 runs in 11.1 overs.
Match Report
Pakistan could not even last 50 overs
Pakistan, who came to bat first, lost 2 wickets for 52 runs in the first powerplay. The team then scored just 131 runs in the next 30 overs. The team was all out after scoring 241 runs in 49.4 overs. Axar Patel, Ravindra Jadeja, and Harshit Rana got 1-1 wickets from India.
