CHRIS DHAMBARAGE
COLOMBO – Shaheen Shah Afridi and Haris Rauf captured two wickets each as Pakistan restricted arch-rivals India to 127 for four wickets at the halfway stage of the innings in their 2023 Asia Cup Limited Overs Cricket Tournament Group ‘A’ fixture at the Pallekele Stadium in Kandy on Saturday.
Afridi delivered the initial blow by removing Captain Rohit Sharma for 11 runs from 22 deliveries in the fifth over after India had won the toss and elected to bat first in this historic tie.
The 23-year-old left-arm seamer followed up by claiming the prize-wicket of star batsman Virat Kohli for a seven-ball four runs to leave India struggling at 27 for two wickets in the seventh over.
Haris Rauf ended Shreyas Iyer’s brief innings in the 10th over after the dashing right-hander had struck two superb boundaries and brought an end to opener Shubman Gill’s painstaking innings in the 15th over.
However, wicket-keeper batsman Ishan Kishan and Hardik Pandya repaired the damage with a fighting partnership as they negotiated Pakistan’s pace-spin attack effectively.
India and Pakistan have not faced each other in a One-Day International (ODI) since their showdown at the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup in England, where India thrashed Pakistan by 89 runs.
Chief scores:
India 127/4 in 25 overs (Rohit Sharma 11, Shubman Gill 10, Shreyas Iyer 14, Ishan Kishan 43 n.o, Hardick Pandya 30 n.o, Shaheen Afridi 2/21, Haris Rauf 2/36) vs Pakistan.
