AB de Villiers lauds Team India on win over Pakistan in Asia Cup 2022

New Delhi: Legendary South African cricketer AB de Villiers congratulated Team India for their five-wicket win over Pakistan in their Asia Cup 2022 campaign opener on Monday.
The crucial partnership between Ravindra Jadeja and Hardik Pandya helped India defeat arch-rivals Pakistan in a thrilling clash by five wickets in the second match of the Asia Cup 2022 here at Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Sunday. "Proper Cricket game that! Tricky wicket with two really good bowling attacks. Congrats India and well done on 100th Virat," tweeted the de Villiers.
Coming to the match, Pakistan were bundled out for 148 in 19.4 overs. Opener Mohammed Rizwan (43) and Iftikhar Ahmed (28) were the only ones who could contribute something decent with the bat.
The pace and short-length deliveries of Bhuvneshwar Kumar (4/26), Hardik Pandya (3/25) and Arshdeep Singh (2/33) and Avesh Khan (1/19) blew away Pakistani batters and wickets fell at a regular rate.
Chasing 149, India lost KL Rahul for a duck in the very first over. After this, Virat Kohli (35) anchored the innings and formed a 49-run stand with skipper Rohit Sharma (12), who largely struggled at the other end. Twin strikes from Mohammed Nawaz, who took Sharma and Kohli's wickets restricted India to 3/53.
Following this, a 36-run stand between Ravindra Jadeja and Suryakumar Yadav helped moving the scoreboard, before Suryakumar fell to debutant Naseem Shah for 18. A 52-run stand between Jadeja (35) and Hardik Pandya (33*) followed, which took India close to a win and in-form Pandya finished the proceedings with a six with two balls to spare, giving India a five-wicket win.
Nawaz (3/33) and Naseem Shah (2/27) bowled really well for Pakistan, though not enough to give them a win.
Pandya was adjudged as 'Man of the Match' for his all-round performance. (ANI)