Asia Cup: No handshakes with Pak players after win, Indian skipper dedicates victory to Armed Forces

DUBAI: India left Pakistan gobsmacked with an all-around effort to cruise to a seven-wicket victory with consummate ease in Dubai on Sunday to stay at the top of Group A at the ongoing Asia Cup.

India gunned down the target with more than four overs to spare despite Saim Ayub leaving the world champions jolted in the powerplay.

The Indian cricket team captain top-scored with an unbeaten 47 off 37 balls as India chased down a 128-run target in just 15.5 overs

“Great feeling and a perfect return gift to India. Human tendency that keeps running in your mind when you think about it (his earlier line about the win being a return gift). You definitely want to win it, and when you win it, you have it ready. One box that I always wanted to tick – stay there and bat till the end. For the whole team, we think it’s just another game. We prepare the same for all the opposition. That’s what happened a few months back.

The team that won the CT set the tone. I’m always a fan of spinners because they control the game in the middle. Just wanted to say something.

Perfect occasion, taking the time out, we stand by the families of the victims of the Pahalgam terror attack. We express our solidarity. Want to dedicate the win to all our armed forces who showed a lot of bravery. Hope they continue to inspire us all, and we give them more reasons on the ground whenever we get an opportunity to make them smile,” Suryakumar Yadav said after the win.

In the eighth time in the last nine T20Is between India and Pakistan, the chasing side has ended up winning. The only exception was the T20 World Cup game in New York last year.

After Kuldeep Yadav cast a spell with his left-arm wrist spin, captain Suryakumar Yadav played the captain’s knock to add to Pakistan’s misery in the rivalry fixture.

While India roared with a comprehensive win, Pakistan perished, courtesy of their lacklustre performance across all facets of the game.

Ryan ten Doeschate, before this match, explained the message that Indian head coach Gautam Gambhir had sent to his players, and the Indian side will try to be “emotionless” for the match, for which they haven’t done anything special in terms of their preparations.

“Look, I think the waiting period of knowing whether this was going to happen was probably the most frustrating part. And once we knew we were going to be playing, we tried to get on with the business of it. This game, particularly, we haven’t prepared differently like I said earlier. But we obviously are aware of the sentiments and the strong feelings. And Gauti’s message has just been sort of very professional about not worrying about things that are not in our control and just trying to be emotionless when approaching the cricket side of things,” he said.

Kuldeep Yadav was awarded Player of the Match. Yadav stated that he had his plans for the fixture and executed them accordingly.

“Simple. Just execute the plans. Just see who is batting and react accordingly. I had my plans and executed them. First ball is always wicket-taking ball, just have to go with that mindset and execute that wicket-taking ball. Batter may be set, but he’s facing me for the first time. Still feel I really need to work on my bowling. Sometimes I feel I use too many variations,” Yadav said.

Pakistan skipper Salman Ali Agha was nowhere to be found in the post-match presentation after a humiliating defeat against the Men in Blue.

Brief Scores: Pakistan: 127/9 (Sahibzada Farhan 40, Shaheen Afridi 33*, Kuldeep Yadav 3/18) lost to India: 131/3 in 15.5 overs (Suryakumar Yadav 47*, Abhishek Sharma 31, Saim Ayub 3/35). (ANI)