After India’s win against Pakistan in the Asia Cup, Captain Suryakumar Yadav joked about the team’s poor fielding. He said fielding coach T Dilip had emailed the guys who had butter fingers and asked them to meet him.
Abhishek Sharma and Shubman Gill’s great batting helped India beat Pakistan by six wickets in Dubai. But it wasn’t a smooth win. Kuldeep Yadav, Shubman Gill and Abhishek Sharma dropped easy catches and let Pakistan score 171/5. Abhishek and Gill later made up for it with their century partnership.
Suryakumar said in the post-match press conference that the fielding coach is already calling out the butterfingers. But it happens, it is a part of the game. I am okay with it because it happened in the first game itself and we have more important games coming up.
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The captain thought the pitch was good for batting.
The team that plays well between overs 7 and 15 will have an advantage. You need to plan well at the end. In the powerplay the ball is new and you can hit it well, but after that you have to bat smart. That’s what we did today, he said.
Suryakumar also mentioned that Shivam Dube’s bowling (2/33 in four overs) was a turning point. He got the important wickets of Saim Ayub, ending a 72-run partnership and later Sahibzada Farhan who had scored a half-century. He also spoke about Shivam’s work on his bowling and his wish to do well with the ball.
The drinks break in the first innings helped. The bowlers changed their tactics, showed more energy and the spinners bowled well. Shivam Dube’s bowling was a turning point. He has been working hard on his bowling. This was a great game for him. He wanted to bowl at least two overs but he got four today and was happy. He had clear plans which made my job easier, he said.
India chose to field first after winning the toss. Pakistan’s Sahibzada Farhan (58 off 45 balls) and Saim Ayub (21 off 17 balls) had a good partnership. Later Mohammed Nawaz (21 off 19 balls) and Faheem Ashraf (20* off eight balls) helped Pakistan score 171/5.Shivam Dube (2/33) was the best bowler for India, Kuldeep Yadav and Hardik Pandya got a wicket each.
In the chase Abhishek Sharma (74 off 39 balls) and Shubman Gill (47 off 28 balls) were in control. Haris Rauf (2/26) tried to fight back for Pakistan but Tilak Varma (30* off 19 balls) and Hardik (7* off 4 balls) took India home with 7 balls to spare.
Abhishek won the ‘Player of the Match’ award.
