India knocked out of Asia Cup 2022 as Pakistan beat Afghanistan in Sharjah

The Indian cricket team is officially out of the 2022 Asia Cup with Pakistan’s win over Afghanistan in Sharjah on Wednesday.

Having lost matches to Pakistan and Sri Lanka in the Super 4 phase, India were depending on Afghanistan’s win against Pakistan to stay alive in the tournament. That looked the likely result until the final over of the match between Pakistan and Afghanistan on Wednesday though.

Mohammad Nabi and his men put on a spirited fight to defend a total of 129 and they almost succeeded at it, as they had 11 runs to defend in the final over with Pakistan nine down. But tail-ender Naseem Shah did an unbelievable thing as he smashed back-to-back sixes off Fazalhaq Farooqi to power Pakistan to the final.

With this loss, Afghanistan also got knocked out of the competition. Like India, they also won both of their group stage encounters and then went on to lose their first two Super 4 clashes.

Opener Hazratullah Zazai was Afghanistan’s highest scorer in the match with 21 runs to his name. Rashid Khan also played an useful cameo of 18 towards the end. As far as bowling goes, both of their left-arm pacers Farooqi and Fareed Ahmad Malik claimed three wickets each.

For Pakistan, Shadab Khan’s 26-ball knock of 36, Asif Ali’s 8-ball 16 and Naseem Shah’s unbeaten 14 off just four deliveries made the difference. Shadab had also bowled an excellent spell of 4-0-27-1 earlier in the match.

With Pakistan’s win here, the match between India-Afghanistan and Pakistan-Sri Lanka matches on Thursday and Friday respectively have become dead rubbers.

For India, this is a very tough pill to swallow as they have dominated Asia Cup for a number of years. Last year also, they got knocked out of the T20 World Cup quite early. And now this disappointing result has the captain and coach under the scanner once again.