IND vs PAK:Team India eases the way to the semi-finals with victory

IND vs PAK: Pakistan bows down to Virat Kohli, Team India eases the way to the semi-finals with victory

India defeated Pakistan in the Champions Trophy. This is India's second consecutive victory in this tournament. With this, the two-time former champion has eased its way to the semi-finals and has almost made it to the last-4. On the other hand, Pakistan's dream of reaching the semi-finals is almost shattered. Both teams still have to play one more match each.

Virat Kohli's brilliant century after the combined efforts of the bowlers gave India its second consecutive victory in the Champions Trophy. Team India defeated arch-rival Pakistan by six wickets in a match played at Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Sunday. Pakistan's team, which batted first, was all out for 241 runs in 49.4 overs. India achieved this target in 42.3 overs.

Saud Shakeel scored the most runs for Pakistan. He played an innings of 62 runs in 76 balls which included five fours. Virat Kohli scored an unbeaten 100 runs for India. This is Pakistan's second consecutive defeat in this Champions Trophy. With this, it has become impossible for them to reach the semi-finals. They were defeated by New Zealand in the first match.

With this win, India has qualified for the semi-finals. It now has to play its third and last league match against New Zealand on March 2. 

Rohit fails, Virat hits

Chasing a target of 242 runs, captain Rohit and Shubman Gill tried to give a good start to Team India. However, Shaheen Shah Afridi's yorker ended Rohit's innings at the score of 31. He was out after scoring 20 runs with the help of three fours and a six in 15 balls. With this, Rohit completed his 9000 runs as an opener for which he took 181 innings.

Rohit is the fastest Indian batsman to achieve this milestone in terms of innings. Before him, this record was in the name of Sachin Tendulkar. Sachin had reached this milestone in 197 innings

Gill was heading towards a 50+ score for the fifth consecutive time. But Abrar Ahmed's spin stopped him from scoring. The Indian vice-captain could only score 46 runs with the help of seven fours in 52 balls. After this, Kohli did his job and scored a half-century. During this, he also completed his 14,000 runs in ODIs.

Kohli-Iyer partnership

After Gill left, Kohli continued his game and was joined by Shreyas Iyer. Iyer and Kohli shared a century partnership for the third wicket. Both of them scored 114 runs together. Iyer managed to score 56 runs in 67 balls with the help of five fours and a six. Iyer was dismissed by Khushdil. Hardik Pandya could score only eight runs.

Kohli's century

Kohli was moving towards a century, but the team did not need many runs to win. However, Akshar Patel gave Kohli a full chance to score a century by taking one run at a time and Virat completed his 51st ODI century by hitting a four on the third ball of the 43rd over. He remained unbeaten after scoring 100 runs. He faced 111 balls and hit 11 fours. Akshar remained unbeaten after scoring three runs.

A weak batting

Earlier, Pakistan captain Mohammad Rizwan won the toss and chose to bat first. Babar Azam and Imam-ul-Haq, who replaced Fakhar Zaman in this match, gave the team a steady start. Hardik Pandya did not let this partnership flourish. He dismissed Babar on a total score of 41 who could score only 23 runs off 26 balls. Imam's innings was ended by Axar Patel with a brilliant throw. He could score only 10 runs off 26 balls.

After this, the Pakistani team did not lose any wicket in the middle overs, but scored runs at a very slow pace. Rizwan and Shakeel shared a 104-run partnership for the third wicket. Akshar broke this partnership by dismissing Rizwan and then the Pakistani team kept losing wickets continuously. Rizwan scored 46 runs off 77 balls. After some time, Shakeel was dismissed by Pandya.

Salman Agha 19, Tayyab Tahir four, Shaheen Shah Afridi got out without opening the account. In the end Khushdil Shah tried to fight a bit. He got out as the last wicket of the team. Harshit Rana made him his victim. Khushdil scored 38 runs in 39 balls which included two sixes. Naseem Shah scored 14 runs.

For India, Kuldeep Yadav took three wickets, Pandya took two. Rana, Akshar and Ravindra Jadeja took one wicket each. Dailymintz