DUBAI: India was rarely tested in a dominating eight-wicket win over traditional rival Pakistan in their group match of the Asia Cup Wednesday.
At Dubai International Stadium, captain Sarfraz Ahmed's decision to bat first after winning the toss backfired when a disciplined Indian bowling attack wrapped up the Pakistan innings for a meagre 162 in 43.1 overs.
India's reply was led by its rampant captain Rohit Sharma, who raced to 52 in just 39 balls and added 86 runs in 13 overs with Shikhar Dhawan for the opening stand. They achieved the target in the 29th over, losing just the two openers.
The result was inconsequential as both teams have already qualified for the round-robin Super Four stage following wins in their respective opening group matches against Hong Kong.
If India's opening bowling attack was sensational — Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah gave away just four runs and removed the two openers in the first five overs — the opening batsmen dazzled the sold-out crowd with their positive intent and a flurry of strokes.
"We were disciplined right from the start," Sharma said. "It was a great game for the bowling unit, especially since we knew it won't be easy in these conditions. We stuck to our plan and did what we had planned to do on this surface. The wickets in the first couple of overs were very important because of the quality of their batting. We didn't want to make things easy for them."
Sharma smashed six boundaries and three sixes, and was particularly severe on seamer Usman Khan in the bowler's fourth over. He hooked a bouncer for six, followed by a stylish pull off a no-ball on one leg for a four to the fine-leg boundary. He then pulled the free-hit delivery deep into the stand behind mid-wicket for another six.
Sharma departed soon after reaching his half-century, misreading the first ball from spinner Shadab Khan and getting bowled off his pads.
Dhawan, who scored 127 in India's opening win over Hong Kong, wasn't exactly a silent partner and he too played some audacious shots before cutting Faheem Ashraf straight into the hands of Babar Azam at backward point four runs short of a half century.
Ambati Rayudu and Dinesh Karthik (both unbeaten on 31) then saw the defending champions home.
Earlier, a third-wicket partnership of 80 between Azam (47) and Shoaib Malik (43) could not put Pakistan on the path to recovery.
Azam was bowled with the score on 85 after he tried to step out to left-arm spinner Kuldeep Yadav and missed the line completely, and the next four wickets could only put together 56 runs as they struggled against the flattish off-spin bowling of part-timer Kedar Jadhav.
Bumrah, coming back into the team after getting a rest against Hong Kong on Tuesday, did not give away a single run in his first two overs, and his partner Bhuvneshwar Kumar reaped the rewards as the suffocated Inam-ul Haq and Fakhar Zaman fell to ambitious shots.
Kumar later returned to remove the tailender Hasan Ali and finished with figures of 3-15 in seven overs. Jadhav also took three wickets for 23 in nine overs.
Pakistan coach Micky Arthur acknowledged that his side was outplayed in all departments of the game.
"We were below par today," he said. "What was very disappointing was that we batted outside our roles. It's not Imam's role to run down to Bhuvneshwar Kumar and try to hit him over the top. If Fakhar gets out that way, it's OK. Other batsmen needed to take responsibility. To have 158 dot balls out of 258 faced is just not good enough."
There was a bit of scare for India when all-rounder Hardik Pandya needed to be stretchered off the field after injuring his lower back while bowling the 18th over of the inning.
India made two changes to the team that won against Hong Kong, with Bumrah and Pandya coming in for Shardul Thakur and Khaleel Ahmed. Pakistan fielded an unchanged eleven following their eight-wicket win over Hong Kong on Sunday.
India beats Pakistan by 8 wickets in Asia Cup
India beats Pakistan by 8 wickets in Asia Cup
- India's opening batsmen dazzled the sold-out crowd with their positive intent and a flurry of strokes
- Pakistan coach Micky Arthur acknowledged that his side was outplayed in all departments of the game
Draw completed for WTA’s 2026 Dubai Tennis Championships
- World No. 3 Elena Rybakina placed in same half of draw as Coco Gauff, Elina Svitolina and British No. 1 Emma Raducanu
- Field includes 16 of world’s top 20 female players, 6 Grand Slam winners
DUBAI: The draw for the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships’ WTA 1000 tournament took place on Saturday, determining the pathway to the final for the tournament’s star-filled field.
This year’s line-up features 16 of the world’s top 20, including Australian Open winner Elena Rybakina, World No.5 Coco Gauff, and last year’s history-making Dubai champion Mirra Andreeva.
Taking place at a renovated Dubai Duty Free Tennis Stadium, the 26th edition of the city’s women’s showpiece will run from Feb. 15-24 and boasts six Grand Slam singles winners sharing a collective nine titles between them.
While the top eight seeds all received first-round byes, top seed and World No. 3 Rybakina — triumphant in Melbourne just a few weeks ago — is on course for a second-round meeting with German Tatjana Maria. On the other half of the draw, No. 2 seed Amanda Anisimova could face two-time Grand Slam winner Barbora Krejcikova — a winner here in 2023 — in the round of 32, should the latter safely negotiate her first-round tie with Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.
Rybakina’s half of the draw also features the likes of 2023 US Open champion Gauff (No. 3 seed), World No. 9 Elina Svitolina (No. 7 seed), 2017 French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko (No. 10 seed), British No. 1 Emma Raducanu and rising star Alexandra Eala of the Philippines – who will face Lucky Loser Hailey Baptiste of the US to progress to a second-round tie with 2024 Dubai winner Jasmine Paolini.
Eala, who attended the draw and is sure to attract huge Filipino support when she starts her campaign on Sunday at 7 p.m. (UAE) on Centre Court, said: “The atmosphere changes a lot when there’s so many excited people. It means a lot for me, because it makes me feel like I’m home when I’m traveling for so many weeks of the year. And I think that feeling is reciprocated for a lot of the overseas Filipino workers. I know there’s a huge population of them here in the Middle East, so it means a lot for people to see themselves in other people. That’s what makes it special here.”
The Kabayan community will also have the chance to watch Leylah Fernandez, the Canadian of Filipino descent, on Centre Court when she meets No. 13 seed Liudmila Samsonova earlier in the afternoon.
On the opposite side of the draw, as well as the WTA’s youngest 1000 winner Andreeva and World No. 6 Jessica Pegula, Greek star Maria Sakkari will follow up her semifinal appearance in Doha last week with an opening round match against No. 16 seed Iva Jovic. This year’s Dubai tournament marks Jovic’s first appearance in the Middle East, and she is already impressed by what she has seen — which includes plenty of the emirate, having taken in the panoramic city views afforded from atop the world’s tallest building, Burj Khalifa.
“I didn’t get to see a tonne of (Maria) play in Doha, so I’m going to talk to my coach and we’ll do some scouting,” said the 18-year-old American. “It’s never easy playing someone who is going into the week with a lot of confidence and she’s definitely in the match zone, but I’m going to do everything I can. I think I’ve prepared very well. I’ve worked hard for the last couple of weeks going into the start of the year. It’ll be tricky, but that’s what we love.
“The start of WTA week is always exciting for us because it gives us an opportunity to showcase some of the improvements that we have done in the past year,” said Ramesh Cidambi, managing director, Dubai Duty Free and chair of the Tournament Organizing Committee.
He also confirmed a new Court One with a 2,000-seat capacity, as well as an expanded Tennis Village. “This is phase one of the upgrade we are doing to the site and as soon as this tournament is over, we will start working on the expansion of the Centre Court to add another 2,500 seats and have a 7,500-capacity Centre Court.”
The 26th edition of the annual WTA event, which takes place from Feb. 15-21, features 16 of the top 20 ranked female players in the world and 33 of the top 40. It will be followed by the emirate’s annual ATP 500 men’s tournament from Feb. 23-28.
