India vs Pakistan Highlights, Asia Cup 2025 Super 4: IND defeat PAK by six wickets in Dubai

Vinayakk Mohanarangan: The hands of the players have come under far too much attention so far in the Asia Cup, whether they are being offered to shake or not. But in the first five overs of the Super 4s clash between India and Pakistan, they were in focus for different reasons: butter fingers. In the very first over, Sahibzada Farhan took on an outswinger from Hardik Pandya. The fuller-length ball was shaping away and the sliced drive went straight to Abhishek Sharma at third man. He was a bit late to react, and at the last instance, found himself having to dive forward. It still came at a catchable height but the Indian fielder let it slip through his hands, left shaking his head for the rest of the over. Former India coach Ravi Shastri called it a complacent effort, strong words. Then in the fifth over, Kuldeep Yadav put down an even simpler chance. Saim Ayub, who hadn't been able to buy a run so far in the tournament, should have been out for 4 as he mistimed a slog sweep off Varun Chakaravarthy. But Kuldeep made a meal out of the high catch at short fine leg. In the 8th over, Abhishek was guilty of dropping another, somewhat tougher, one as Farhan took on Varun towards long on. Abhishek went with one hand and tipped it over the fence.

Farhan smacked one through the long-on region, and Shivam Dube, the fielder there, had an opportunity that was a tough one, but he could have managed to pick it; however, he did not, and he spilled it over for a six. And in the same over, Ayub chipped one in the air and it looped over Chakarvarthy, who he did not even look to take. This is quite an ordinary fielding effort from India. They just have not turned up in this game yet. We often do not see India make such errors, especially in pressure games, in recent years, but they have made a lot of them 8 overs into the game already.

Pritish Raj: The first wicket of the night brought displeasure from the Pakistan camp and broadcasters alike. Opener Farkhar Zaman started aggressively hitting two consecutive fours against Jasprit Bumrah in his first over. The intentions were clear to take on the bowlers from word go. However, his innings was cut short after Sanju Samson caught him behind the wicket in Hardik Pandya's second over.

But it was not a clear call. Hardik's off cutter found the edge of Fakhar's bat and Samson immediately claimed the catch. The on-field umpires referred it to the third umpire to check the legitimacy of the catch. The replays looked tricky as the ball was very close to the ground when Samson caught it. After checking the replays couple of times, once with the zoomed-in angle, the third umpire was convinced and ruled it out.

However, Zaman, along with the Pakistani camp including coach Mike Hesson and former pacer Waqar Younis on air, were unhappy with the decision. Waqar expressed his doubts, questioning the third umpire's decision. "I think I would want to see the replays more times as it looked to me that the ball bounced," Waqar said on the commentary. "That is why Fakhar was shocked." Sanjay Manjarekar later said, "The opinion in the commentary box is divided on whether it was a wicket or not."

Pakistan has gone after Bumrah today. At times in Wankhede playing for the Mumbai Indians, he goes for a few, but in international cricket, this kind of counter-attack is a real rarity, and what would hurt India even more is that it is Farhan who India spilled in the opening over struck against their ace bowler. Also, it was quite a strange tactic from Surya to use Bumrah for the third over in the Powerplay despite him not being able to find his radar. It must be said that Pakistan is dominating this game at present.

Varun Chakarvarthy has come into the attack, and he created an opportunity as Saim Ayub slog swept a delivery, and the ball went high in the air, and it was a simple catch for Kuldeep Yadav at fine-leg, and he spilled it. It is the second opportunity India did not manage to take today. The first one was of Abhishek Sharma of Farhan in the first over. The side is looking a bit rusty here. They were not great against Oman on Friday, especially with the ball, and the way they have started here is not looking promising either. The Indian side has to tighten the screws if they have to restrict Pakistan to a chasable total if they keep dropping opportunities and bowl freebies. Pakistan has enough in its batting to put on a decent score.

Bumrah is struggling a bit with his length here. He did start hitting that hard length initially, but Zaman came down the track a few times to upset the rhythm of Bumrah. It is not too often he has an off day, but Bumrah, the way he has started here, it does seem like he is not in the best of rhythms today, and we update he bowled a waist height no-ball. Suryakumar Yadav needs to introduce spinners here, as despite picking the wicket of Fakhar Zaman, India are conceding quite a few boundaries early in the piece here.

Fakhar is gone here. It was a hard-length delivery, which Zaman hung his bat outside the off-stump, and the ball took the edge, and Samson claimed the catch. Unsure umpires sent it upstairs, and it did seem like the ball was close to the ground before getting into the gloves of Samson, but the umpire deemed it as fingers underneath and gave Zaman out. Well, if we did not have enough controversy already for the game, there is one for the netizens to explore. Nevertheless, a good breakthrough for India as Fakhar was looking quite dangerous.

Fakhar Zaman is going after Jasprit Bumrah here. It was Bumrah all those years ago in 2017 who bowled that no-ball when Fakhar edged one to slip and was not given out. He went on to score a sublime ton, which helped Pakistan beat India for the first time in an ICC event. While his form in this tournament or generally in T20 is up and down, he is quite a streaky player. If he manages to get one score, he goes on a run of scores, and the thing about him is that once he gets going, the attacks and conditions go out of the equation; he dictates the tempo of the game. He did manage to score a 50 against the UAE in the previous game, and so far, the way he is batting here, the signs are looking a bit ominous for India.

Hardik Pandya created an opportunity in that opening over against Farhan and Abhishek Sharma at the third-man, who made a meal of the opportunity. It must be said that with modern-day athleticism, it was quite a simple catch. Farhan was the player who looked somewhat sorted when these sides met last week in the group stage. The interesting thing or change that Pakistan has made today is that they are opening with Fakhar Zaman today. This is quite a sensible move, if he gets going in the Powerplay, it would be hard for India to restrict Pakistan under a par total.

We are done with the national anthems. The crowd is electric and here in Dubai. Fakhar Zaman and Farhan walk out into the middle for Pakistan, and it is going to be Hardik Pandya taking the new ball for India. We have to see if there will be any swing on offer with the new ball for both the Indian seamers, Pandya and Bumrah

Just gets easier to bat in the second innings, nothing to do about the surface. It's about the weather. Both captains said they wanted to field first. It has played pretty good throughout the tournament. We have seen scores of 150-160. As the ball gets older, it does grip. Matches have been played here for almost 8-10 days here and it will assist spin. You got to get used to the conditions when you are batting first. Give yourself that extra bit of time to get used to the pace and bounce. Same nature of pitch for Sri Lanka v Bangladesh and 160 wasn't enough. If Pakistan want to make India sweat it will have to be in excess of 180-200 and that's not going to be easy

Saim Ayub, Sahibzada Farhan, Fakhar Zaman, Salman Agha(c), Hussain Talat, Mohammad Haris(w), Mohammad Nawaz, Faheem Ashraf, Shaheen Afridi, Haris Rauf, Abrar Ahmed

Abhishek Sharma, Shubman Gill, Suryakumar Yadav(c), Tilak Varma, Sanju Samson(w), Shivam Dube, Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Jasprit Bumrah, Kuldeep Yadav, Varun Chakaravarthy

Would've bowled first as well. It's a new game, new challenge. The mood is very normal. Pitch looks to be on the slower side. Want to start well with both bat and ball. Two changes. Hasan Nawaz and Khushdil Shah not playing.

We'll bowl first. Looks a nice track and yesterday there was dew. Since first round we were thinking we're playing a knockout tournament, nothing changes. That was a completely different wicket (in Abu Dhabi). Quite normal, just another game. Bumrah and Varun come back for Arshdeep and Harshit

“Everyone knows his job and my job is to take wickets in the middle overs. Axar bowls in the powerplay and he does the controlling job for us. We three are experienced in the T20 format and understand the roles. Their inputs have helped me or anyone who is bowling in the middle. Whether it’s Axar or Varun, or whoever is bowling, will offer inputs about the pitch.”

“If you follow other sports, you get to know how it feels when the team is performing really well. You see, the best teams are so strong that they have 15-20 players who can start any game. You see how they play against the small teams, how they react, the communication and the final decision-making is so quick. I love to watch them, admire them, watch their communication and connection between them, and how they lift each other.”

“Who told you I am happy with my bowling?” he asked, before he dwelled on the pitfalls of self-contentment. I don’t feel that I am bowling that well, I feel that I can improve and become better. I keep making chotti chotti mistakes. I feel I can become better because sometimes you make a mistake in reading the batsman in this format. The margin for error is too little. When you are at the top of the game and you make small mistakes, you don’t notice it, but you feel that you have made a mistake.”

“Pakistan played 63 dot balls in their innings – that’s just over 10 overs of dots. Credit to the Indian bowlers. It’s sad to see players like Hasan Nawaz, Haris and our captain; they are talented players. But you need to pick your bowlers and read the situation. They were all chasing a strike rate of 150.”

Both teams arrive at the DIS. At least this time, there would not be a delayed start.

“It’s just the way he (Kuldeep) bowls. They can’t read him. In the pre-show, I was talking to Sunny bhai (Sunil Gavaskar), who was a great batter. He said, ‘unless and until you can read him from the hand, you won’t be able to understand that type of bowling’. So that’s what happened. When they sweep against Kuldeep every second ball, it means you are not reading him,”

“That’s what I want Shaheen Afridi to do early on, because the whole world now knows the plan against him. They say, ‘Okay, he’ll be bowling yorkers first up.’ So Afridi needs to have a Plan B. This is the length he should be bowling. I’m fine with one-off yorkers, but not two or three consecutive ones, because if he misses even one, it’s going for a boundary with only two fielders outside the circle. He ends up putting pressure on himself. I know he thinks he’s being attacking and going for wickets, but mixing it up with length balls is better. One yorker, yes, but not straightaway, and not every ball,” Akram told Sony Sports.

“You have to bowl at stumps at him, get the ball to come in to him a bit from a good length. That’s the only chance to dismiss him,” Misbah said.

“Or try an offspinner, if the pitch is like that where the ball is getting stuck. Like Saim Ayub.”

“You have to take the chance to get him out, you can’t think let us try giving less runs (yeh over nikaal-wa loon) but with that you wil get trapped. If you take his wicket, you can put pressure on India by taking out their main weapon. Like when you used to remove Rohit Sharma and the impact he used to have. So it’s mighty important for Pakistan to get him out.”

“The kind of starts he gives, relaxes the team, takes the pressure off the rest of the batsmen. The best thing about him is that he is good against all type of bowling – pace or spin. Also, off side and on side, he plays everywhere. He can hit boundaries anywhere,”

The Asia Cup 2025 has been a physically demanding tournament for players due to the hot and humid conditions in the UAE. Temperatures in both Dubai and Abu Dhabi have been a constant challenge, with Sunday's expected temperature hovering around 35-36°C during match hours.

Another significant factor has been dew, which makes bowling difficult in the second innings. While this would normally give an advantage to the team chasing, the low first-innings totals on the slow pitches have largely neutralized this effect. Despite the drop in temperature at night, dew continues to be a major talking point and could influence the outcome of matches.

The cricket pitch at Dubai Cricket Stadium has been slow and difficult for batters, favoring bowlers, especially spinners. The average first innings total in the Asia Cup 2025 has been around 135, and there hasn't been a 200+ total in the last three years. While a high score is possible, the conditions have generally made it challenging to score freely.

“If I were Pakistan, I’ll just aim at the stumps when bowling and swing hard when batting against India. Because quality wise, I am unsure if they can do much. Will they pick Kuldeep Yadav and Varun Chakravarthy? Will India continue playing Shivam Dube at 8 and give him overs? The wicket is getting better so maybe if Pakistan score 160, it might be a good game,” said Ashwin.

“Also, one request to Pakistan – please don’t bat first because of the pressure of the contest. By batting first, you make it a no-contest straightaway. By getting bowled out for 150, you are making the second half unwatchable.”

“If Pakistan even competes in this game, it’ll be an upset. From their point of view, I just want to see Saim Ayub score some runs instead of getting out first ball because he is a good cricketer. There aren’t too many concerns to address for India. If I was India, I would want Pakistan to challenge them with the T20 World Cup around the corner,” Ashwin remarked on his YouTube channel.

“I doubt they’ll give much competition to India in the upcoming match as well. It’s just going to be yet another India-Pakistan match with the associate teams out of the tournament, that’s it. Pakistan are still struggling to even scale 150. They are barely getting there, only by Shaheen Afridi’s batting.”