Ishan Kishan's dominance blows Pak away

Ishan Kishan looked like he was playing on a totally different wicket. His innings of 77 of 40 balls was decorated with ten fours and three sixes. On a ground where the average turn was way below the day's turn spinners were getting specially on a ground which was difficult for six hitting, this was phenomenal. His knock virtually made the difference. He is nicknamed Pocket Dynamite for a reason and he proved why yet again in a match closely followed much before the world cup began.

After Abhishek Sharma lost his patience and was dismissed in the first over, India needed a partnership to steady the ship and Ishan stitched together an 87 run one with Tilak Varma. The fact that Ishan scored 76 of the 87 speaks volumes about his dominance. He hooked Shaheen Afridi's first ball for a six- the left handed pacer has recently become a stereotype with batsmen prepared for either a short ball or a full one and are generally fed with one of these. After a couple of relatively subdued overs, Ishan started breaking loose from the fourth over bowled by Abrar. Saim Ayub & Shadab Khan were also not spared. It was not a show of maverick batting but one of careful shot selection and sheer power. Finally when Kishan got out after missing a cut off Saim Ayub, India had galloped to 88 in the ninth over.

Then followed a lull as Surya Kumar Yadav and Tilak Verma looked for singles and were careful not to lose more wickets. And all of a sudden Tilak Verma and Hardik Pandya were dismissed off successive deliveries. Though India's philosophy in T20s is to keep looking for runs aggressively, the approach of players like Hardik Pandya and Abhishek Sharma in important matches calls for reality check. Both literally threw their wickets away but the method has reaped results more often than not and the think tank led by Gautam Gambhir approves of it - Rohit Sharma and Rahul Dravid must be given credit for setting the tone before the 2024 T20 World cup. Then Saim Ayub, on a hat trick, bowled a classic off spinner's delivery which missed the bat, pad and stumps of Shivam Dube. A reassured Dube and Rinku Singh finished with a flourish and India amassed 175 which looked well beyond Pakistan at half way stage.

Hardik Pandya and Jasprit Bumrah toppled the Pakistan top order and when Axar Patel castled Babar Azam, they slid to 34-4 even before the powerplay ended. Usman Khan waged a lone battle but Kuldeep Yadav started weaving his magic from the tenth over and it was all over for Pakistan. Axar, called to bowl his last over next, enticed Usman to step out and was stumped neatly by Ishan for 44. Pakistan's hopes- not that they would have had any specially with the way they have been playing recently, dashed. The hype that gets created before every such India - Pakistan match is now beginning to lose its sheen. The Pakistanis seem to be more interested in provoking Indians and making comments which are unwarranted for, rather than playing good cricket. By advising Bangladesh to pull out, Pakistan started getting entangled in unnecessary trouble and exacerbated matters by deciding to boycott the game against India. This was then reversed - the entire episode should have been avoided.

India was way ahead of Pakistan at all stages and looked like a settled and calm balanced outfit with full clarity of thought. SKY as captain continues to remain calm and collected. The fact that he is back in form augurs well for India. On the whole India, despite a slow start has gathered momentum and looked well placed to go past the semi finals though it is too early to speak now. If Abhishek and Tilak are back to their original best, the Indian team will be extremely difficult to beat.