Asia Cup 2018: All-round India thrash Pakistan by eight wickets

India defeated Pakistan by eight wickets and with 21 overs remaining in their second match of the 2018 Asia Cup in Dubai on Tuesday. It was Pakistan’s heaviest defeat to India in terms of balls remaining (126) in the One-Day Internationals.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who looked rusty in the 26-run victory over Hong Kong, starred for India in the victory taking three wickets, which included the scalps of both the openers for single-digit scores. Kedar Jadhav complemented him with three wickets of his own.

Those six wickets combined with another couple from Jasprit Bumrah bowled Pakistan out with only 162 runs on the board. Only four Pakistan batsmen managed to cross reach double figures and it was only for the vital 82-run partnership between Shoaib Malik (43) and Babar Azam (47) that Pakistan managed to cross the 150-run mark.

India got off to a flyer with openers Rohit Sharma (52) and Shikhar Dhawan (46) adding 85 runs at the top, to set the tone for a comfortable victory. Skipper Rohit especially looked in fine touch and smashed Mohammad Amir for a couple of boundaries to get going.

Ambati Rayudu and Dinesh Karthik then remained on 31 runs each not out with the former hitting the winning runs to complete what surprisingly was a comfortable victory for the defending champions.