NEW YORK: Jasprit Bumrah was the hero as India beat Pakistan by six runs in a low-scoring T20 World Cup thriller in New York on Sunday.
India was bowled out by Pakistan for 119 in 19 overs but while Mohammad Rizwan made 31 for Pakistan, in a well-paced innings, Bumrah delivered crucial wickets and his 3-14 in four overs proved decisive as Pakistan fell just short ending on 113-7.
Despite a tricky surface that made batting difficult, a crowd of 34,028, a record attendance for an international cricket match in the USA, were given a tight contest that ebbed and flowed.
Pakistan needed exactly a run a ball and they approached their innings accordingly — by engineering themselves into a position where they needed 40 to win off the last six overs but then were unable to deliver in the face of Bumrah’s brilliance.
“Bumrah is going from strength to strength. I’m not going to talk too much about him, we want him to be in that kind of mindset till the end of this World Cup, he’s a genius with the ball,” said Indian captain Rohit Sharma, praising his team’s fans, who had travelled from far and wide to back them.
“The crowd was superb, they never disappoint, wherever we play in the world, they come out in huge numbers and support us. They’ll be going home with a big smile on their face as well. Just the start of the tournament, we have a long way to go,” he added.
Bumrah had picked up the vital wicket of Pakistan captain Babar Azam (13) early and then the breakthrough dismissal of Mohammad Rizwan (31) in the 15th over when Pakistan were 80-4.
Then, handed the ball for the penultimate over, with Pakistan needing 21 to win, Bumrah conceded just three runs and removed Iftikhar Ahmed with his final delivery.
That left Pakistan needing 18 from the final over, a steep task on a difficult batting surface and it got more tricky when Arshdeep Singh trapped Imad Wasim lbw with the first ball.
Naseem Shah made a valiant effort, hitting the fourth and fifth balls of the over for fours but India avoided any late drama to secure their second win of the tournament.
