Asia Cup: India to take on Pakistan in Super 4 clash in Colombo today
In Asia Cup Cricket 2023, India will take on Pakistan in a Super 4 clash at Premadasa International Cricket Stadium in Colombo today. The match will start at 3 p.m. IST.
A reserve day has been incorporated for the Asia Cup 2023 Super 4’s match between India and Pakistan. If adverse weather suspends play during the Pakistan Vs India game, the match will continue on 11th September from the point it was suspended. This will be the third fixture of the Super 4 matches at the Asia Cup.
In the 2nd Super 4 match at Premadasa Stadium in Colombo last night, Sri Lanka won by 21 runs against Bangladesh. Chasing a target of 258 runs set by Sri Lanka, Bangladesh were all out for 236 in 48.1 over. Earlier, Bangladesh won the toss and opt to bowl.
In the first Super 4 match on Wednesday, Pakistan had defeated Bangladesh by seven wickets. Very few know the art of survival better than the Asia Cup. It’s endured through boycotts by both India and Pakistan, apathy from administrators, fluctuating fandom, seasonal revision of trophies, and even a raging pandemic. Furthermore, it hasn’t shied away from switching between formats just so as to stay relevant.
It’s no surprise then, that the Asia Cup has restyled itself into an enabler for Indo-Pak cricket in the last few editions. After all, it’s the only tournament outside ICC events where the two teams meet and therefore, the organizers have left no stone unturned to ensure that this big match isn’t washed out like the last one. In a helter-skelter, unpopular move in view of bad forecast, a reserve day has been brought in place to save the fixture – a luxury extended to no other fixture but the final. Well, you really are one of a kind, Asia Cup.
That said, no one would mind seeing an India vs Pakistan match to completion. And never more than now, when the last one left us wanting for more before a much-anticipated World Cup in “home” conditions, where both teams know that they have a genuine shot at glory. So now’s the time for them to suss each other out, gain ascendancy locally and land the first blow.
Pakistan nearly did that in Pallekele, hurting India through Shaheen Shah’s left-arm angles with the old ball and new. That sight, it must be said, felt far too familiar for how seldom these two sides play each other, and India’s top-order would be desperate to talk back. And there’s no better place to do it than in Asia Cup’s quiet and quaint setting in Colombo, before the noise in cricket’s largest setting in Ahmedabad comes for you.
Of the six teams participating, Pakistan have comfortably looked the best side in the tournament. The batters have done well setting a target as well as chasing it, but they would hope for some runs from Fakhar Zaman who’s had a good year but a quiet last month or so. The fast bowlers have made people sit up and watch, so much so that Shoaib Akhtar has been reminded of the “old days”.
It makes sense; Naseem Shah’s bowling rockets, Shaheen’s thinking his “best is yet to come” and Haris Rauf’s doing everything right and fairly wanting to be the Player of the Tournament. All that’s great but where Pakistan need to step up are their overs with spin. Ishan Kishan and Hardik Pandya cracked open that weak link pretty easily last week, and other good batters, of whom there will be plenty at the World Cup, will do it too. The last thing you want is some late lower-order partnership, about which captains have never been keener, to wipe out the damage inflicted by the faster bowlers.
To talk about India’s campaign, it’s been far from perfect. If the top-order batting came a cropper against Pakistan, the bowling and fielding against Nepal was “below par” in Rohit Sharma’s words. They dropped three catches inside the first five overs and the bowling, barring Ravindra Jadeja, looked rusty. They, though, will be boosted by the return of Jasprit Bumrah, who has re-joined the team, but it would take more than just him to outdo an in-form Pakistan. They are the team to beat in the tournament and luckily, India will have a maximum of two days to try and do that. There might or might not be a result still but we already have a winner: the Asia Cup.
Squads:
Pakistan Squad: Fakhar Zaman, Imam-ul-Haq, Babar Azam(c), Mohammad Rizwan(w), Agha Salman, Iftikhar Ahmed, Shadab Khan, Faheem Ashraf, Shaheen Afridi, Naseem Shah, Haris Rauf, Saud Shakeel, Mohammad Nawaz, Usama Mir, Abdullah Shafique, Mohammad Haris, Mohammad Wasim Jr
India Squad: Rohit Sharma(c), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Ishan Kishan(w), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Jasprit Bumrah, Axar Patel, KL Rahul, Suryakumar Yadav, Prasidh Krishna, Tilak Varma
