Pakistan Crush Nepal in a Historic Asia Cup Opener
Pakistan Crush Nepal in a Historic Asia Cup Opener: Earlier today, The 16th edition of the Asia Cup kicked off in style. After 15 years, Pakistan is hosting a multi-nation tournament. It all started with a curtain raiser in which Aima Baig and Nepali singers performed.
After the curtain raiser, Pakistan won the toss and chose to bat first on a tricky Multan track against Nepal, which was making its debut in the Asia Cup. Pakistan had already announced their playing 11 yesterday, and it was a full-strength Pakistan 11.
The start for Pakistan was not up to the mark as both openers Fakhar and Imam struggled initially due to good bowling by Nepal, and Pakistan’s situation was not good when both openers got out at the score of 25.
With Pakistan 25 for 2, Babar and Mohammad Rizwan started rebuilding the innings. Playing risk-free cricket and still picking up boundaries here and there, they took the side to 100 in the 22nd over. But then Nepal struck back, once again via their fielding. This time Dipendra Singh Airee, from cover, hit the stumps at the bowler’s end to find Rizwan’s bat and both feet in the air as the batter tried to avoid getting hit by the throw. Had Rizwan run normally and grounded his bat, he would have been safe. He made 44 of 50 balls.
Agha Salman attempted a sweep from well outside off and a reverse sweep in the first three balls he faced; neither shot fetched him any runs. Three overs later, he tried another reverse sweep off Sandeep Lamichanne but failed to keep it down and was caught at short third.
At 124 for 4, Pakistan were in trouble, but Babar was unperturbed. Against spin, he used the cut shot well to rotate the strike and reached his fifty in 72 balls.
While Nepal fielded like the World XI at certain times, they looked like the Ilford Second XI at others. Having dropped Imam on 5 earlier, they put Babar on 55, not to mention several other causal efforts resulting in misfields.
Read also: https://icasportsplus.com/asia-cup-2023-all-you-need-to-know-including-squads-and-fixtures/
Babar made them pay. He started finding the boundary with increasing frequency and got to his hundred in 109 balls. Fittingly, it was another cut shot against spin that took him to the milestone.
After that, he really opened up. In the 45th over, he hit Kami for 4, 4, and 6 off successive balls before smashing back-to-back sixes off Lamichanne.
From the other end, Iftikhar was even more brutal. In fact, it was his knock that allowed Babar to shift gears gradually.
Gradually, as innings went on, both players attacked Nepal bowlers, during which Babar scored the fastest 19-ODI century in 102 innings, leaving behind Hashim Amla. After Babar, Iftikhar also completed his maiden century and scored his maiden international tonne, and both players took the score to 342 for 6.
Shaheen Shah Afridi then picked up two wickets in the first over of the chase. He first strangled Kushal Bhurtel down the leg side before trapping Paudel LBW for a first-ball duck. In the next over, Naseem Shah had Aasif caught at first slip to make it 14 for 3.
Aarif Sheikh and Kami gave the innings some stability by adding 59 off 78 balls, but the pair didn’t last long against Haris Rauf’s pace. He first cleaned up Aarif and then had Kami caught behind him. The only resistance Pakistan’s fast bowlers faced was from the muggy weather; both Shaheen and Haris had to leave the field for a breather after their first spells.
Nepal’s lower order was no match for Shadab’s variations. Mixing his legbreaks and googlies, he picked up the last four wickets to finish with figures of 4 for 27.
