Pak vs ind
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The India-Pakistan rivalry has come alive at this Asia Cup, not because of off-field hype or dubious anecdotes, but because of the cricket. How about that. It was round 1 to India, and now Pakistan have hit back in style, opening their account in the Super Four. Another cracking game today. Hope you enjoyed it, and enjoyed our coverage as well. Until next time, it's goodbye from Sagar Chawla on behalf of Praveen, Abhinand Raghavendran and Pradeep Krishnamurthy.
Nawaz, Player of the Match: Want to keep things simple. Basic things like line and length. The effort is to turn one or two deliveries to put doubt in the batter's mind. Legspinners were in operation and there was one short boundary as well. Needed around 10 rpo at that time. I had clarity about going for it if it was in my area. Sometimes in a high pressure situation when you're looking to go hard, you tend to lose shape.
Azam: Our effort is to keep it simple. Ups and downs will keep happening. They got the edge the way they utilised the powerplay. But our bowlers made a comeback. Rizwan and Nawaz partnership was the turning point. I had a hunch Nawaz would be key against legspinners (about his promotion).
Rohit: It's a high pressure game we know that. You've got to be at it every time. A game like that can take a lot. We were calm even when there was a partnership between Rizwan and Nawaz. But that partnership obviously went a little long and they batted brilliantly. Games like this can bring the best out of them if they deliver. These are the games that can make them. They've done it in the past. There's a class in the other team as well. And we're not surprised with that. We understand the pitch gets slightly better in the second innings. It's a good learning for us. I thought it was a good score. Any pitch, any conditions when you get 180 it's a good score. We got to learn a lot today - what sort of mindset we need to have when defending a score like that. Like I said you've got to give credit to Pakistan. They've played better than us. The form is brilliant (talking about Kohli). Needed someone to bat long when the others were getting out. He batted with that tempo as well. Virat getting that score was crucial from the team's point of view. Wickets of Hardik and Rishabh was not needed at that time. But we want to play with an open mindset. While taking that approach you'll not always have success.