Pakistan vs India T20 World Cup Highlights – 23 Oct 2022

Babar Azam:

“A tight game. We started well in our bowling, and then all credit to Hardik Pandya and Virat Kohli. They shifted the momentum and finished the game well. It’s not easy with the new ball, with a little bit of swing and seam. We had a chance, and we just asked the boys to believe in themselves, but again credit to Virat Kohli. We needed a wicket, that’s why we utilized our main bowlers [and kept Nawaz for the end]. A lot of positives. The way Iftikhar played, the way Shan played and finished the innings was good for us.”

Rohit Sharma:

“I have no voice left. We were always wanting to make sure we stayed in the game as long as possible. We’ve been talking constantly about it. No matter what the situation, you’ve got to believe you can pull through, and that partnership changed the game for us. There was good carry, and good swing as well, and we utilized that well upfront. That was good to see from the bowling perspective. They batted well in the middle. We knew it would not be an easy target on that pitch. We knew we would have to bat out of our skins. Virat and Hardik are experienced guys. Staying calm and taking it as deep as possible was critical, and they did that. It’s good for our confidence to get off the mark in our first game, and the way we won is more pleasing for us than the way we came back. Hats off to Virat. It has to go off as not one of his best, but the best innings he has played for India. Thanks to everyone who came out and supported us, and I will expect nothing less wherever we travel in Australia.”

Virat Kohli is the Player of the Match.

He’s not able to say much, because it’s just too noisy for that. “Well, it’s a surreal atmosphere. I honestly have no words. I have no idea how that happened. Hardik kept telling me, just believe we can stay till the end. I’m lost for words. Well, I think when Shaheen bowled from the Pavilion end, I told Hardik we have to take him down. The calculation was simple. Nawaz had one over to the bowl, so if I could take Haris down, they would panic. It came down to 16 off 6. I’m kind of lost for words. [On the two sixes off Rauf:] It’s just instinctively I saw it, told myself to stay still. The one at long-on was unexpected, it was a back-of-a-length slower ball. The fine leg one, I just threw my bat at it. Till today I said Mohali was my best T20 innings. Then I got 82 off 52, and today I got 82 off 53. Both are just as special. All these months when I was struggling, you guys [the crowd] kept me going. Thank you so much.”

Pakistan vs India Highlights today. 16th Match, Group 2 (N), Melbourne Cricket Ground, Sunday 23-10-2022, ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2022.

Toss: India chose to field.

Pakistan team: 1 Mohammad Rizwan, 2 Babar Azam, 3 Shan Masood, 4 Shadab Khan, 5 Haider Ali, 6 Iftikhar Ahmed, 7 Mohammad Nawaz, 8 Asif Ali, 9 Shaheen Shah Afridi, 10 Naseem Shah, 11 Haris Rauf.
India team: 1 Rohit Sharma, 2 KL Rahul, 3 Virat Kohli, 4 Suryakumar Yadav, 5 Hardik Pandya, 6 Dinesh Karthik, 7 Axar Patel, 8 R Ashwin, 9 Mohammed Shami, 10 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 11 Arshdeep Singh.

Head to Head In T20I’s: 11
Pakistan Won: 3
India Won: 8
Pakistan T20I Rankings: 3rd
India T20I Rankings: 1st

ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2022 Points Table

Form guide

(last five completed Tests, most recent first)
Pakistan WWLWW
India LWWWW

Match Timings: 8:00 AM GMT | 7:00 PM Local
Umpires – Marais Erasmus, Rod Tucker
TV Umpire – Richard Kettleborough
Match Referee – Ranjan Madugalle
Reserve Umpire – Joel Wilson
Match number – T20I no. 1842

Pitch and conditions: First, the bad news. It may rain on Sunday, though there’s a bit of encouraging news on that front. Now for the good news. The last three India-Pakistan T20Is have all been played in Dubai, a venue where the toss influences result disproportionately, and have all been won by the chasing side. Chasing teams have won each of the last five completed T20Is at the MCG as well, but that could simply be a quirk of probability, because, as our superlative guide to the venues at this World Cup tells us, chasing teams have a 50% win record in all T20 games at this ground since the start of 2020.

This suggests the toss may not be quite so crucial, though you would probably still expect the team winning it to chase. Also expect a lot of hard-length bowling, with bowlers encouraging batters to hit toward the long square boundaries and keeping them away from the relatively short straight boundaries.

• P1
• P2
• P3
• P4