India defeat Pakistan by 5 wickets in opening Asia Cup T-20 match

In Cricket, defending champions India registered victory over arch-rivals Pakistan by five wickets in their opening Asia Cup Twenty-20 match at Dubai International Stadium last night. Put into bat first, Pakistan were bowled out for 147 in 19.5 with opener Mohammed Rizwan’s 43-run was the top-score for the team. For India, Bhuvneshwar Kumar picked up four wickets while Hardik Pandya took three and Arshdeep Singh scalped two wickets.

In reply, India overhauled the target for the loss of five wickets in 19.4 overs riding on Hardik Pandya’s unbeaten quick knock of 33 runs while both Virat Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja played knocks of 35 each. For Pakistan, Mohammad Nawaz took three wickets. Hardik Pandya was adjudged player of the match for his brilliant performance with both ball and bat. Earlier, India won the toss and elected to field first.

India have so far won the title for the record seven times. The match was Virat Kohli’s 100th T20 international game. With this, Virat Kohli becomes the first Indian to play 100 matches in all three formats.