Asia Cup: India stroll to victory over UAE in 10 overs
A blazing knock of 39 runs from Rohit Sharma got India off to a flying start as they easily chased down the target of 82 runs in just over 10 overs. Earlier, UAE chose to bat first but Bhuvneshwar Kumar produced a stunning spell of swing bowling to help India restrict their opponents to 81.
Brief scores: UAE 81/9 in 20 overs (Shaiman Anwar 43(48), Rohan Mustafa 11(22); Bhuvneshwar Kumar 2/8) lost to India 82/1 in 10.1 ov (Rohit Sharma 39 (28), Yuvraj Singh 25 (14) )
Chasing a paltry total of 81, India got off to a fantastic start courtesy of Rohit Sharma. While his partner Shikhar Dhawan, like the UAE batsmen before him, struggled to get bat on the ball, it looked like Rohit was batting in his backyard.
The 28-year-old started his innings with an exquisite drive off the back foot through the cover boundary and did not look back after that. In the fourth over, Amjad Javed felt the full fury of Rohit, who danced down the track and drove him over the cover boundary for a majestic six. During that period, Rohit hit four boundaries and a six in the space of six deliveries as the meagre total came within touching distance.
The partnership for the first wicket was 43 runs, and Rohit Sharma contributed 39 of those runs, in just 28 deliveries. Eventually, Rohit was held out at the thirdman in the sixth over.
After Rohit's dismissal, Yuvraj came into the crease and started from where left off against Sri Lanka. The southpaw looked in imperious touch and hammered the UAE bowlers for a quickfire 25 runs. Dhawan, who struggled at the start, also found a bit of his form towards the end of the innings.
Eventually, Yuvraj Singh took India over the line with a boundary off a pull shot behind square in the first ball of the 11th over.
Earlier in the evening, the match started on a melancholic note as the players and officials observed a minute of silence in the memory of Martin Crowe, who passed away earlier in the day. Despite the loss, Martin's brother Jeff Crowe carried out his duty as the match referee in this game.
MS Dhoni lost the toss for once, and UAE chose to bat first on a wicket, which according to the Indian skipper had more grass on it than the last match. Having secured their place in the final, India made three changes to their line-up with Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Pawan Negi and Harbhajan Singh getting a look-in in place of Ashish Nehra, Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja.
Making his first appearance in the competition, Bhuvi opened the bowling for India, and he made full use of the favorable conditions. The 26-year-old got the ball to swing both ways, and the UAE batsmen found it hard to even edge the ball. The pacer started with a maiden over and Jasprit Bumrah maintained the pressure at the other end by conceding just a single in the second over.
Eventually, the pressure brought a wicket, when Mohammad Shahzad closed the face of his bat too quickly, in an attempt to flick the ball to the on side, and Bhuvi's out-swinger took the top half of the bat and popped up in the air. The bowler completed the catch, as Bhuvi bowled two back-to-back maiden overs.
Mohammad Shahzad went for a duck as well, after edging an out-swinger from Bumrah in the next over. By the end of the fourth over, UAE were struggling at 7/2, and it seemed like they would find it hard to survive the twenty overs.
After the initial struggle with the pacers, UAE struggled against the Indian spinners as well. Harbhajan Singh flighted the ball invitingly for the batsmen, and was extracting enough turn to trouble the left-handers.
Shaiman Anwar looked like the only batsman who had any measure of the pitch and was battling hard to take his team to a respectable score. But he was running out of partners at the other end.
Bhajji picked up the wicket of Amjad Javed in the 14th over with a lovely flighted delivery. The off-spinner got lovely drift and dip, which left the batsman in no man's land, and Javed could only feebly chip it to midwicket. UAE kept losing wickets consistently throughout the innings, and even Shaiman Anwar's resilient innings came to an end in the 20th over, as his team limped to a score of just 81.
While it turned out to be a comfortable day for the national team, the BCCI have a lot of mess on their hands to handle. The Pakistan team has threatened to pull out of the World T20, while the Supreme Court decimated them in court over the Lodha committee recommendations.
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