New Delhi: India and Pakistan encounters are always thrilling and full of emotions for the fans. Asia Cup 2022 has laid the stage for another nail-biting on-ground battle between the two strong teams. India has a great Asia Cup record against Pakistan as in the 14 games, India has won eight while Pakistan won five with one game ending in no result.
As India and Pakistan are set to play on August 28, take a look at three fierce Indo-Pak encounters in Asia Cup:
1. Asia Cup 2012: Virat Kohli announces himself on international stage
Pakistan started the game really well with the 224 runs opening stand between Mohammad Hafeez and Naser Jamshed. Both the openers scored a century before Ravichandran Ashwin dismissed Jamshed in the 36th over. In the next over Ashok Dinda got Hafeez off an lbw. Umar Akmal and Younis Khan continued the destruction with Younis scoring 52 off just 34 balls. Pakistan ended up with a score of 329/6. India used eight bowlers but could not stop Pak batters to go past 300.
India had a poor start with Gautam Gambhir getting out on the second delivery. Then Virat Kohli stood with his idol Sachin Tendulkar to get a 133 runs partnership. Tendulkar got out after scoring a fifty off a doosra by Saeed Ajmal. Two modern-day greats, Rohit Sharma and Kohli led India’s chase. When Rohit got out on 68(83), India was standing at 305/3 in 45.5 overs. Virat went on to score 183 runs, which is his highest ODI score to date. If that was not enough for the Indian fans, the game was finished by a boundary by MS Dhoni.
2. Asia Cup 2010: Gambhir-Akmal sledging show
It was a game to remember for various reasons such as the banter between Gautam Gambhir and Kamran Akmal, the issue with the light and Harbhajan Singh finishing the game with a six on the final ball. The game began with a 71-run partnership between Salman Butt and Imran Farhat. After Farhat was dismissed by Harbhajan, there was another great partnership between Salman and Shoaib Malik. Just after Malik’s dismissal, Salman was run out off a throw by Ravindra Jadeja on 74. It was then Shahid Afridi’s 32 off 25 and Kamran Akmal’s 51 off 41 that saved the innings. Pakistan managed 267 which was pretty much a defendable total. Praveen Kumar took three wickets with Zaheer and Harbhajan taking a couple each.
Gautam Gambhir played a brilliant inning and a 3rd wicket partnership with MS Dhoni kept India in the game. In the drinks break after the 34th over, Gambhir and Akmal shared words and Dhoni and the umpires had to separate them. With catches being dropped, Pakistan looked in trouble. Saeed Ajmal brought Pakistan back into the game by dismissing Gambhir for 83(97). Soon India lost wickets and was 219/6 when Suresh Raina was batting and Harbhajan came in. They had a 43-run partnership, which proved to be the match-winning stand for India. Raina scored 34 off 27 and Harbhajan scored 15* off 11 with a six on the last ball to win the game.
3. Asia Cup 2014: Afridi wins Pakistan a nail-biting game
Three of India’s top four did not play well, only Rohit Sharma managed to score a fifty. From India being 103/4 in 23.2 overs, Ambati Rayudu, Dinesh Karthik And Ravindra Jadeja handled the affairs. The fifties from Rayudu and Jadeja helped India to reach 245. Saeed Ajmal was impressive as usual and took 3 for 40.
Pakistan started well with a 71-run partnership between Sharjeel Khan and Ahmed Shehzad. Soon Ashwin and Amit Mishra crafted their spinning web to get Pakistan to 113/4. A confusion between Mohammed Hafeez and Misbah-ul-Haq led to the dismissal of the latter, which was the third wicket for India. Hafeez along with Sohaib Maqsood posted an 87-run stand. The match took a turn when Ashwin dismissed Hafeez for 75 and Maqsood got run out in the next over. With wickets falling on one end, Afridi scored 34* off 18 as Pakistan won by one wicket with two balls remaining.
