IND vs PAK 2022: [Watch] Pakistan Fall of Wickets today
Pakistan's top-order batters did not have a great outing against India earlier today at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. The Men in Green squared off against their arch-rivals in their first Super 12 match of the T20 World Cup 2022.
Captain Babar Azam lost the toss and was asked to bat first by Rohit Sharma. Pakistan got off to a horrendous start in the powerplay overs.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar conceded only one run in his first over, and then Arshdeep Singh trapped Babar Azam in front of his stumps on the first ball of the second over.
In the fourth over, Arshdeep Singh got the prized wicket of Mohammad Rizwan as the Men in Green were down to 15/2 at the end of four overs.
Shan Masood and Iftikhar Ahmed stabilized the innings with an impressive partnership of 76 runs for the third wicket.
Ahmed destroyed Axar Patel in the only over the left-arm spinner bowled, but he lost his wicket to Mohammed Shami soon after completing his fifty.
@ICC ]𝙎𝙝𝙖𝙢𝙞 𝘽𝙝𝙖𝙞 𝙎𝙝𝙖𝙣𝙙𝙖𝙖𝙧! 🔥
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Pakistan's middle-order collapsed after Iftikhar Ahmed's dismissal
Hardik Pandya then scalped three wickets in quick succession, sending the trio of Shadab Khan, Haider Ali, and Mohammad Nawaz back to the dressing room before they could contribute much to the team's total. Pandya returned with figures of 3/30 in his four overs.
Arshdeep Singh picked up his third wicket of the day soon after by stunning Asif Ali with a quick bouncer. Ali tried to duck it but failed to do so and ended up handing an easy catch to wicket-keeper Dinesh Karthik.
Shaheen Afridi played a brief cameo at the end, but Bhuvneshwar Kumar did not allow him to score more than 16 runs.
Eventually, Pakistan scored 159/8 in their 20 overs and set a 160-run target for the Men in Blue. It will be exciting to see if India can chase the target successfully.