Kishan-Hardik break Dravid and Kaif’s 18-year-old partnership record against Pakistan

The Indo-Pak game in the Asia Cup was called off due to rain but there were still a lot of positives for India to gain from the contest and the biggest of them all was the form of the two middle-order batters Ishan Kishan and Hardik Pandya.

Pandya and Kishan record highest fifth wicket partnership against Pakistan

The duo stitched a much-needed partnership after India lost four wickets for just 66 runs on the board. The pair batted sensibly and added 138 runs for the fifth wicket which is the new record for the highest fifth-wicket partnership for India against Pakistan breaking Rahul Dravid and Mohammad Kaif’s record of 135 runs. The pair had accumulated the run back in 2005 when bilateral series between India and Pakistan were not a rare occurrence.

 In fact, the 138-run stand is also the highest by an Indian pair for the fifth wicket in the Asia Cup. The previous highest fifth-wicket stand in Asia Cup ODIs for India was 133 between Dravid and Yuvraj Singh in Dambulla, in 2004

Indian innings

Electing to bat first after winning the toss India got off to a poor start as the men in blue lost the top five batters inside ten overs with less than 50 runs on the board. Shubman Gill also departed and soon as India was reduced to 66-4 with Pakistani fast bowlers creating havoc with deliveries that had pace and bounce and were bowling accurately on good lines and lengths. Talking about dismissals of Indian top order batters, three of the top four batters were out bowled by Shaheen Afridi and Haris Rauf after the rain break.

The Collapse

Indian openers Shubman Gill and Rohit Sharma started cautiously as the Pakistani bowlers bowled around the channel of uncertainties which made it difficult for the duo to score freely.

Eventually resulting in them getting out cheaply as Rohit received a peach of a delivery from Shaheen Afridi who set the Indian captain up beautifully by getting the first three balls after the rain break to leave the right-hander and bringing the next ball in which was a full-length delivery that went through the gap between Rohit’s bat and pad crashing into the stumps

Virat who came to bat at number three was dismissed in a similar fashion as he tried to guide the ball to third man but only managed to play it back onto his stumps. Iyer who looked good while batting was dismissed in an unlucky manner as he connected a pull shot straight into the hands of Fakhar