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Jasprit Bumrah finished with three for 14 as India successfully defended 119 to beat rivals Pakistan by six runs at the T20 World Cup in New York.
Pakistan were hoping to bounce back from their shock opening loss to the USA and appeared well on course to do that after bowling out India, for whom only Rishabh Pant (42), Axar Patel (20) and Rohit Sharma (13) reached double figures, cheaply.
A Pakistan victory still seemed on the cards as they reached 80 for three after 14 overs in response, but the loss of opener Mohammad Rizwan for a 44-ball 31, bowled by Bumrah, saw the tide turn.
With the run rate continuing to rise and the India attack, led by the brilliant Bumrah, giving little away, there was too much work left for Pakistan’s middle order as they were restricted to 113 for seven.
That left India with two wins from two in Group A and 2022 runners-up Pakistan staring at an early exit.
After rain had delayed the start of the match, Pakistan were quickly among the wickets after sending India into bat as star duo Virat Kohli and Sharma fell in the opening three overs.
India regathered thanks to a 39-run partnership from Pant and Patel but that came to an end when the latter, in attempting to accelerate the innings, was cleaned up by the impressive Naseem Shah (three for 21) when he came dancing down the track.
At 89 for three in the 12th, India would still have been targeting a much larger total than they ended up with but, with Haris Rauf (three for 21) and Mohammad Amir (two for 23) building on Shah’s efforts, they lost their last seven wickets for just 30 runs.
Despite that collapse though, India would have known they were still well in the game as New York has been a venue where runs have been difficult to come by at the start of the World Cup – and so it proved for Pakistan.
They made a steady start but lost captain and talisman Babar Azam for 13 in the fifth over when he clipped Bumrah into the hands of Suryakumar Yadav.
Fakhar Zaman and Usman Khan also fell having scored 13 but Rizwan seemed to be edging Pakistan towards victory until the game turned with six overs to go when Bumrah bowled the dangerous opener with his side 40 runs from victory.
Pakistan were still in contention, needing 21 from 12 balls with five wickets in hand, when Bumrah returned to have Iftikhar Ahmed caught by Arshdeep Singh in a penultimate over that cost just three runs, and there was no way back for Babar’s side after that.
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