Abhishek Sharma Roasts Pakistan’s ‘Premium Fast Bowler’ After India’s Win In Asia Cup Final | Cricket News

Team India defended their Asia Cup crown with a thrilling win against Pakistan in the final, as the men in blue pulled off the victory with a couple of deliveries to spare.

Indian opener Abhishek Sharma, who was named the player of the tournament, spoke of his approach in the powerplay over as she seeks to utilise the field restriction overs to the maximum possible extent. His comments were seen as a dig to Pakistani pacer Shaheen Shah Afridi.

“I’m going to utilise the powerplay,” Sharma said.

“Even any premium fast bowler coming in to bowl, if they come, I had a plan in my mind,” he added.

India won the toss and opted to bowl first as Pakistan got off to a sizzling start thanks to Shahibzada Farhan and Fakhar Zaman who added 84 runs for the first wicket. Varun Chakravarthy removed Farhan, who brought up his half-century, for 57 runs off 38 deliveries.

Saim Ayub, who chipped in with 14 runs, fell to Kuldeep Yadav before Mohamed Haris was dismissed by Axar Patel for a duck. Chakravarthy returned to dismiss Zaman for 46 runs before Patel removed Hussain Talat for a single run.

Salman Ali Aga fell to Kuldeep for 8 runs before the leggie picked up yet another wicket with the scalp of Shaheen Afridi for a duck. Yadav completed his four-fer with the removal of Faheem Ashraf for a duck. Jasprit Bumrah dismissed Haris Rauf for 6 before closing out the Pakistan innings with the wicket of Mohammed Nawaz for 6 runs.

India did not enjoy a great start as Abhishek Sharma fell to Ashraf f just 5 runs before skipper Suryakumar Yadav fell to Afridi for 1 run. Ashraf stuck again to remove Shubman Gill for 12 runs while Abrar Ahmed dismissed Sanju Samson for 24 runs.

Tilak Varma and Shivam Dube steadied the chase with a 60-run stand before Dube was scalped for 33 runs by Ashraf. But, Rinku Singh accompanied Varma as the duo, unbeaten on 4 and 69 runs respectively closed out the chase with two balls to spare.