India capped their unbeaten Asia Cup campaign by defeating arch-rivals Pakistan by five wickets in Sunday’s final but refused to collect the trophy they successfully retained in a bizarre end to a politically-charged tournament.
The presentation ceremony was first delayed, prompting speculations about what caused it, and then abruptly cut short just before the winner’s trophy was about to be handed over.
“I have been informed by the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) that the Indian cricket team will not be collecting their awards tonight,” Simon Doull, who conducted the post-match presentation, said.
No reason was given as to why the champions would not accept the trophy.
Emotions ran high and tempers frayed in the earlier matches between the bitter neighbours, who clashed in a military conflict in May this year.
India captain Suryakumar Yadav referred to the May clashes and dedicated his team’s victory against Pakistan in the September 14 to the armed forces back home.
Sunday’s prize distribution controversy overshadowed the actual match where Tilak Varma anchored India’s nervy chase with an unbeaten 69 in reply to Pakistan’s 146 all out.
Put into bat, Pakistan could not capitalise on an 84-run opening stand between Sahibzada Farhan (57) and Fakhar Zaman (46) and were bundled out for 146 with five deliveries still left in their innings.
Pakistan lost their last nine wickets for 33 runs in a spectacular meltdown with India’s left-arm spinner Kuldeep Yadav (4-30) being the wrecker-in-chief.
Pakistan got off to a strong start with Farhan leading their charge against an Indian attack weakened by the absence of their injured all-rounder Hardik Pandya.
Pakistan scored 45 runs in the first six powerplay overs but soon stepped up on the gas.
With Farhan in full flow and Fakhar playing the second fiddle to perfection, there was no inkling of the collapse lurking around until spinner Varun Chakravarthy (2-30) dismissed Farhan in the 10th over.
Kuldeep then took over, tying the batters in tangles while Axar Patel picked up a couple of wickets to hasten Pakistan’s collapse. Jasprit Bumrah also finished with two wickets.
India’s start was rather wobbly as they lost their in-form opener Abhishek Sharma, also the tournament’s leading scorer, and skipper Suryakumar Yadav inside the first 10 deliveries of their innings.
They slumped to 20-3 after Gill’s exit but Varma and Sanju Samson (24) decided to rebuild the innings.
Even that recovery would not have been possible but for the reprieve Samson, then on 12, got when Hussain Talat dropped him in the deep.
Abrar Ahmed dismissed Samson to break the 57-run stand but Shivam Dube (33) combined with Varma to take India closer to the target before falling in the penultimate over.
Needing 10 runs from the last over from Haris Rauf, Varma hit the second ball for a six to effectively seal India’s thrilling victory and triggering wild celebration in the Indian camp.
Pakistan players received their runner-up medals in the presentation ceremony held largely to empty stands at the Dubai International Stadium after more than an hour’s delay.
Varma received the player-of-the-match trophy while teammate Abhishek Sharma, the leading scorer of the eight-team competition, accepted the player-of-the-tournament award.
“Pretty amazing,” India vice-captain Shubman Gill summed up their feeling after clinching their ninth Asia Cup title in his interaction with the official broadcasters.
“(Finishing) the whole tournament unbeaten – it’s pretty amazing to be in this position.”
Pakistan captain Salman Agha did not hide his disappointment after failing to beat world T20 champions India in three attempts in a single tournament.
“It’s a tough pill to swallow right now,” Agha said blaming their batters for letting down the team in the tournament.
“In bowling, we gave everything. If we could have finished well (with the bat), it would have been a different story.
“We could not rotate the strike properly and we lost too many wickets. That was the reason we could not score what we wanted.”
Asia Cup is the flagship tournament of the ACC headed by Pakistan Cricket Board chief Mohsin Naqvi, who is also Pakistan’s home minister.
Reuters
