India and Pakistan clashed for the much-awaited Group of 12 game on October 23,Sunday in Melbourne, Australia. As expected it was one of the most exciting and thrilling matches of cricket you would have ever see and even the stadium showed so. Till the last two balls, nobody could have actually predicted the winning team in the match. There were so many turns and twists that kept everyone on the edge of their seats and couches. Eventually, India won the match on the last ball, it was actually a lot of drama that happened in the last 2 overs of the game before India won the first match.
Rohit Sharma-led Team India went up against Babar Azam’s led Team Pakistan in their Super 12 match at the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne, Australia. Winning the toss, India put Pakistan in to bat first and chose bowling and fielding for themselves. The men in green (Team Pakistan) finished their quote of 20 overs at 159 runs with 8 wickets down with honor of fifties from Shan Masood and Iftikhar Ahmed as well as some hitting from Shaheen Afridi and Haris Rauf in the match.
Though the Pakistan openers faced challenges in the beginning, Shan Masood, Iftikhar Ahmed and Shaheen Shah Afridi helped their team to reach 159 runs in 20 overs of the 1st innings. India’s Arshdeep Singh and Hardik Pandya clinched 3 wickets each in the game. Indian openers too faced some challenges and lost initial wickets in the second inning, but Virat Kohli and Hardik Pandya set a great partnership to help India settle down after back to back dropping wickets. Kohli 82 and not out and Pandya’s crucial 40 runs and that too in the most crucial time and overs helped India score 160 runs in the match. The last two over were totally surreal which went from having a target of 28 runs in 8 balls down to 16 runs in 6 overs and all those no balls, wides, free hits turned the tables for the team India. It was R Ashwin who hit the ball over the in-field, sparking wild celebrations as the Indian players swamped Kohli in the last ball of the thrilling and nail biting match ending. Both the teams met before the T20 World Cup in the Asia Cup a month back, not only once but twice. Even though Rohit Sharma and his men won the first encounter amongst them, Pakistan squared the things off in the second meeting which proved a heavy price for the Indian team. Both matches, however, went right down to the wire and lived up to the expectations of an India-Pakistan clash but at the end Team India was not able to live up to the expectations set up for them. Although the tournament went bad, India got Kohli back in his form after a year or so
