Kishan leads India rout in another lucrative mismatch

A day of no handshakes, and for Pakistan many head shakes.

- Simon Burnton

India are through to the Super Eights with three wins from three games

(MANAN VATSYAYANA/AFP/GETTY IMAGES)

India coasted to victory in what became global cricket’s most lucrative mismatch after a superlative innings from the opener Ishan Kishan skewed it definitively in their favour.In its second half a game that was dramatically off and then on again became one where a parade of Pakistan batters were dramatically in and then out again. Chasing a target of 176 they were seven down before they got halfway, and were skittled for 114 to lose by 61runs.

Kishan’s innings was a glorious anomaly, the 27-year-old thriving onasurface with which few came to terms. Only one other player struck more than three fours; Kishan hit 10. No one else produced more than a

single six; Kishan managed three. He hit 77 runs off 40 balls, the extent to which he stood outillustrated by the fact that when he was dismissed he had scored 88.5% of his team’s runs.

“Ishan thought something out of the box. Someone needed to take responsibility and he did that amazingly,’ Suryakumar Yadav, the India captain, said.