Team India defeated Pakistan by five wickets on Sunday© AFP
India and Pakistan played an exciting match at the Dubai International Stadium on Sunday, and it was Rohit Sharma and co who came out on the right side of the result as they defeated their arch-rivals by five wickets in Asia Cup Group A clash. Hardik Pandya was the star of the show as he put on an all round performance to help India win the competition. Hardik first took three wickets and then went on to play a match winning knockout of 33 runs from just 17 balls to take India across the line with two balls left.
However, former Pakistani pacesetter Shoaib Akhtar was unimpressed with the cricket on display and went on to say that both teams were trying to lose the match and it was a “bad cricket day”.
“I want to congratulate both India and Pakistan. Both teams tried to lose the match, India was almost successful in that. India tried its best to lose the match, but Hardik Pandya took them over. Will score 45 out of 45 balls, what too There were 19 dots in the first six overs when Pakistan was hitting. If you play so many dots, you’re going to get in trouble,” Akhtar said on his YouTube channel.
“There was a bad selection, both captains Babar Azam and Rohit Sharma made bad selection calls. India dropped Rishabh Pant and Pakistan played Iftikhar Ahmed at number 4. No disrespect to him. I have said so many times that Babar should not open, he should come down one and he anchors the innings. Fakhar and Rizwan should open,” he further explained.
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Further criticizing both teams’ selection calls, Akhtar said: “Both teams played bad cricket, Pakistan messed up their batting order. Even India sent Ravindra Jadeja at number 4, so you consider how bad the calls were from both sides.”
“Pakistan then sent out Shadab Khan for Asif Ali, so I couldn’t understand Babar Azam’s thinking. It’s really really bad cricket. Pakistan didn’t do the calculation for the last one. It was a bad cricket day.” Both teams played poorly. I didn’t like it, I don’t care what others have to say,” he added.
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