Varma steers shaky ship home

The batter's 53-ball 69* takes India toa fighting five-wicket win over Pakistan for a 9th Asia Cup crown

- Somshuvra Laha

A mature half-century from Tilak Varma helped India straddle back-to-back fifty-run partnerships involving Sanju Samson and Shivam Dube to defeat Pakistan by five wickets and win the Asia Cup ina tense final in Dubai on Sunday.

Put into bat, Pakistan cruised to 100 in just Il.2 overs before their batting imploded as they finished with 146. India have been master chasers but Pakistan bowled tight lines and fielded spectacularly to push the match to the wire. In the end, India needed 10 off the last ‘over but Varma and Rinku Singh scored them in two hits to seal a memorable win.

The scare was real when India slipped to 10/2 after Abhishek Sharma and Suryakumar Yadav played needlessly aggressive shots. Itturned for the worse with Shubman Gill too following suit—trying to lay into a cutter from Ashraf but failing to clear Haris Raufatmid-on—and India slumping to 20/3 and their lowest ever powerplay score of 36 in this Asia Cup.

But Sanju Samson and Tilak Varma curtailed their shots, rotated the strike and added 57 off 50 balls.

Just when itwas proving to be the perfect platform to launch an offensive, Samson was dismissed by Abrar Ahmed. Teased by a tossed up delivery, Samson cleared his front leg and wanted to go big but managed a slice to Shaibzada Farhan at backward point.