India prevailed over Pakistan in their Asia Cup 2023 Super 4s encounter in Colombo which began on September 10 and concluded on September 11 due to rain. The Men in Blue registered a 128-run win over Men in Green, their biggest in the format.
India had posted 356/2 in 50 overs with Rohit Sharma (56), and Shubman Gill (58) adding 121 runs on the first day of the match. Then on the reserve day, Virat Kohli (122*) and KL Rahul (111*) added 233 unbeaten runs for the third wicket as Pakistan bled runs in the absence of Haris Rauf and Naseem Shah in the death overs.
In response, the Pakistan batting crumbled badly for just 128 runs with Kuldeep Yadav taking 5/25, and lost the match by 228 runs, their biggest loss to India in ODIs ever.
When everyone was waiting for Pakistan to begin their chase of the 357-run target, Pakistan’s Wasim Akram and India’s Ravi Shastri were in the studio discussing the game strategy for broadcasters Star Sports.
During the discussion, Star Sports showed the result of a fan poll for the battle between Babar Azam and Jasprit Bumrah. The results showed 98% of fans voted for Bumrah to win the battle as compared to 2% favoring Babar.
This irritated Wasim Akram and he was not happy with the poll results. He even accused the broadcasters of making the poll up.
He said: "You guys are making these stats up. What? Babar is the No. 1 batter in the world. I mean, come on guys. Give him a little appreciation. Make it 3 percent at least. It will be a great battle. One of the top bowlers in world cricket against the No. 1 batter in the world, who has just a 2 percent chance against him.”
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However, during the match, Bumrah won the battle against Babar in the middle. The India pacer sent down 13 deliveries to Babar, with 11 of them resulting in dot balls and only conceding 4 runs. His first delivery was a menacing inswinger which thudded into Babar’s pads.
He followed it up with an almost unplayable delivery, beating the Pakistan captain outside off stump. Bumrah had Babar baffled with a back-of-a-length delivery and a fuller swinging ball. Babar managed to hit a four on the next ball which was short and outside off-stump.
