The first match of the Indian cricket team in the Asia Cup 2023 which was against Pakistan got washed out due to rain but it gave a chance to Pakistani pacers to show their dominance as they sent 4 Indian top order batters back to pavilion quite early in the innings. After this, there was a lot of discussion regarding the failure of Indian batters against Pakistani pacers and many even said that the Indian skipper Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli have problems while facing left-hand pacers such as Shaheen Shah Afridi.
However in the second match between India and Pakistan which was played yesterday at R Premadasa International Cricket Stadium, Colombo, Rohit Sharma played a beautiful knock of 56 runs for which he played 49 balls and his innings included 6 fours and 4 sixes.
Rohit Sharma was praised a lot by cricket experts and former cricketers for leading from the front in this important match. The former head coach and former Indian cricketer Ravi Shastri analysed Rohit’s batting during a show and said that there was a phase of 10 balls in the beginning when Pakistani pacer Naseem Shah was beating the Indian skipper and Rohit Sharma was not able to play his shots. Shastri said that Rohit went through that phase but whenever he got the opportunity to hit the ball, he smashed it for a four or a maximum.
Ravi Shastri further said that Hitman didn’t miss a single loose ball which clearly shows his intentions.
Rohit Sharma was well supported by his opening partner Shubman Gill who played a beautiful knock of 58 runs (52 balls, 10 fours) and they both stitched a partnership of 121 runs for the first wicket. However, the match got halted due to rain in the 24th over with Virat Kohli and KL Rahul at the crease.
The match resumed today from where it was halted yesterday and both Virat Kohli and KL Rahul batted superbly and played knocks of 122 runs not out (94 balls, 9 fours & 3 sixes) and 111 runs not out (106 balls, 12 fours & 2 sixes), respectively. India has put up a huge total of 356/2 runs at the score board and in response, Pakistan has scored 38/1 with Fakhar Zaman and Babar Azam at the crease.
Will Pakistan be able to chase the target successfully? What do you feel?