In a match that was worthy of a final, India emerged victorious in the final moments to take the Asia Cup 2025 home. The match went to the final over, but India their nerves to win their ninth Asia Cup title. This also mean that India remained unbeaten against Pakistan in the tournament, winning all three of their encounters.
Indian spinners restricted Pakistan after initial grilling
Ahead of the game, India won the toss and put Pakistan to bat. The openers Sahibzada Farhan and Fakhar Zaman gave the Men in Green a brilliant start. The duo ensured that Pakistan remedied their disease of losing early wickets while keeping the scoreboard running. They stitched together a partnership of 84 runs in 9.4 overs before they were separated.
After the dismissal of Farhan, who scored 57 runs off 38 deliveries, Fakhar Zaman took on the onus on himself to continue the assault for his team. With Saim Ayub, Zaman was propelling the score towards a big formidable target. Stationed 113/1 in 12.4 overs, Pakistan looked all settled for a 180 plus total.
However, after this mayhem struck the Pakistan line-up. The Indian spinners completely changed the game with their brilliance and near perfect execution. Kuldeep Yadav led a collapse in the Pakistan line-up that resulted in them losing nine wickets for just 33 runs. India managed to bundle out the Pakistani line-up for just 146 runs at the start of the final over of the innings.
The total that one stage looked like would be well beyond 180 or maybe even 200, ending at below 150 would have given the Suryakumar Yadav-led side a lot of confidence. They would have banked on their man in form, Abhishek Sharma to give them another blazing start and end the game as a competition early in the second innings.
Tilak Varma takes India home after a dismal start
But when it is Pakistan with their back to the walls, they are the most dangerous. The Indians found it out the hard way. Faheem Ashraf resulted in the casualty of Abhishek Sharma in the second innings of the chase, much to the delight of the Pakistan fans. Before the Indians could have recovered from the early shock, the skipper, Suryakumar Yadav departed trying to clear the mid-off Shaheen Afridi’s bowling.
India were struggling at 10/2 at this stage and needed a partnership to claw back into the game. The onus was on Shubman Gill and Tilak Varma to bail the team out of trouble. Gill looked in good touch with the bat and the Indian fans were hoping that their Test skipper would go the distance in the chase. However, Ashraf struck once more and Gill fell trying to clear the infield again. India were staring down the barrel at the stage stationed at 20/3 inside the fourth over of the innings.
Sanju Samson joined Varma at this stage and the duo started sticking together a partnership that gradually started re-igniting the Indian hopes. They had a partnership of 57 runs going and it looked like Samson and Varma would bat Pakistan out of the game. But Abrar Ahmed had different ideas. On the second over of the 13th over, Ahmed picked up the wicket of Samson and brought the doom closer for India.
At this stage, Shivam Dube arrived at the crease and along with Tilak Varma started scripting another turn around for India. The two batters scored 28 runs off the 15th and 16th over and that boiled down things to India needing 36 runs off the last four overs.
However, Varma and Dube held their nerves and guided India to their ninth Asia Cup title. Tilak Varma remained unbeaten on 69 runs off 53 deliveries playing a knock that the Indian cricket fans will remember for a long long time.
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