India romped to a comprehensive seven-wicket victory in their high-intensity encounter against Pakistan in the men’s Asia Cup 2025 in Dubai on Sunday. The match had been coloured from the start by calls from across the border to ‘boycott’ the fixture. It seems the pressure got to the players as well, with the Indian team refusing to shake hands, as is customary, at the toss and after the match. Then, at the post-match ceremony, Indian captain Suryakumar Yadav seemingly ‘politicised’ the victory by bringing up the Pahalgham terrorist attack in India-occupied Kashmir, over which the two countries fought a four-day military conflict in May, saying the victory was “a perfect gift” for his country. “We stand with the victim’s families of the Pahalgam terror attack, and we express our solidarity, and we want to dedicate today’s win to the armed forces,” the Indian skipper said. Speaking at the post-match press conference, Yadav said: “Our government and the BCCI were aligned. We took a call and came here just to pl...
Another Pakistan-India match, the gulf of quality between the two sides glaring yet again, and brighter than ever. Fair to say Pakistan are a young side undergoing transition under a new captain and a newer team management, but there were enough instances throughout the fixture that highlighted a bigger problem: big-match nerves. One of those few instances was Shaheen Shah Afridi’s late onslaught of 33 off 16, which included four clean hits for sixes. He and Sufiyan Muqeem added 43 off 22 balls — a strike-rate of 195-plus — to drag Pakistan to 127-9 when it looked like the team wouldn’t even get into three figures. If tailenders can do that, why not the specialist batters? India’s Suryakumar Yadav plays a shot during the Asia Cup 2025 T20 International cricket match against Pakistan at the Dubai International Stadium in Dubai, the UAE. — Reuters To put it simply, the pressure of the big occasion got the better of them before India, obviously a well-oiled T20 machine, faced no challenge whatsoever during the c...