• Only Usman Khan offers resistance after top order batters crumble
• Kishan’s commanding knock buoys India; Saim Ayub makes a mark with 3-wicket haul
• India through to next round; Pakistan can still qualify if they beat Namibia

COLOMBO: India routed their arch-rivals Pakistan by 61 runs on Sunday to qualify for the next round of the T20 World Cup, in a showdown that had been in doubt until a few days ago.

With the win against Pakistan, India have made to the Super Eight.

Pakistan, however, will have to beat Namibia in their last group-stage match on February 18 to qualify for the next round.

Suryakumar Yadav’s side scored 175-7 after being given a flying start by player of the match Ishan Kishan’s brilliant 77, and then bowled out Pakistan for 114 in 18 overs.

The defeat for Pakistan continued their woeful record against India in World Cups; with the latter winning eight of nine T20 World Cup meetings and all eight of their ODI World Cup encounters.

The cricket teams of the nuclear-armed neighbours only meet in multi-nation tournaments at neutral venues, and the two have not met in a Test match for 18 years, and it has been 13 years since either side crossed the border to play a bilateral series.

Shortcomings

Speaking during the post-match presentation, Pakis­tani skipper Salman Agha said shortcomings in the bowling and batting departments contributed to their defeat.

He said Pakistan went in with four spinners, but “they had an off day”. “Execution was missing in some parts,” he said, adding that the team also failed to start well in terms of batting.

“If you lose 3-4 wickets in the powerplay, you are always chasing the game.”

“In the first innings, it was a bit tacky, and the ball was gripping too. The pitch played better in the second innings, but we did not bowl according to the situation, and we did not apply ourselves with the bat,” Agha said.

“In these games, the emotions are always going to be high, we just need to deal with it […] We have a game in a couple of days, and we have to look forward to it. We need to win that and qualify. Then it is a new tournament.”

No handshake

Earlier, Indian captain Yadav and his Pakistani counterpart did not shake hands at the coin toss, which the latter won and elected to bowl. Yadav also did not shake hands with Agha in any of their three matches at the Asia Cup in Dubai last year, including the final.

The off-and-on-again Group ‘A’ match was only confirmed to go ahead six days ago, when the Pakistan government took back its threat to boycott the encounter after the ICC announced concession for Bangladesh, who had been left out of the tournament due to their refusal to play matches in India.

Bad start

On Sunday, Pakistan got off to the worst possible start in their chase of 176 to win, with Sahibzada Farhan top-edging a slog across the line to mid-on for a duck in Hardik Pandya’s first over.

It became 6-2 when Jasprit Bumrah’s second ball trapped Saim Ayub (six) plumb in front.

Captain Salman Ali Agha (four) was next to go, with another mistimed slog off Bumrah’s sixth ball, leaving the team in dire straits at 13-3.

When spinner Axar Patel bowled Babar Azam for five, Pakistan were in tatters at 34-4 in the fifth over.

Usman Khan offered some resistance, scoring 44 from 34 balls with a six and six fours in an attempt to repair the innings.

But after he charged down the pitch to Patel and Kishan stumped him by a mile, it sparked a mini-collapse of three wickets for five runs and at 78-7 the game was done and dusted.

Kishan’s knock, Saim’s brilliance

In the first inning, India opening batsman Abhishek Sharma returned after a stomach bug, but only lasted four balls before falling without scoring.

Kishan was unperturbed by the loss of his partner and set about an assault on the Pakistan bowlers, bringing up his fifty off 27 balls with two sixes and seven fours.

He had dominated the strike so much that when he departed it was with 77 runs out of India’s 88-2 after 8.4 overs to his name.

Kishan’s departure enabled Pakistan to put the brakes on India’s batsmen and, at the second drinks break after 14 overs, they had advanced the score only to 125-2.

Tilak Varma, on 25, became Saim’s second victim, trapped in front and India were 126-3.

Hardik then slogged the next ball and was caught in the deep to put Saim on a hat-trick.

Shivam Dube was beaten all ends up by the hat-trick ball, but it bounced over the top of middle stump as it turned past the left-hander’s outside edge and he somehow survived.

Saim finished with 3-25 from his four overs.

SCOREBOARD

INDIA:

I. Kishan b Saim 77

A. Sharma c Shaheen b Salman 0

T. Varma lbw b Saim 25

S. Yadav c Saim b U. Tariq 32

H. Pandya c Babar b Saim 0

S. Dube run out (Nawaz) 27

R. Singh not out 11

A. Patel c Saim b Shaheen 0

EXTRAS (LB-2, W-1) 3

TOTAL (for seven wickets, 20 overs) 175

DID NOT BAT: K. Yadav, V. Chakravarthy, J. Bumrah

FALL OF WICKETS: 1-1 (Sharma), 2-88 (Kishan), 3-126 (Varma), 4-126 (Pandya), 5-159 (S. Yadav), 6-175 (Dube), 7-175 (Patel)

BOWLING: Salman 2-0-10-1, Shaheen 2-0-31-1, Saim 4-0-25-3, Abrar 3-0-38-0, Shadab 1-0-17-0, Nawaz 4-0-28-0, U. Tariq 4-0-24-1 (1w)

PAKISTAN:

Sahibzada Farhan c Singh b Pandya 0

S. Ayub lbw b Bumrah 6

Salman Ali Agha c Pandya b Bumrah 4

Babar Azam b Patel 5

Usman Khan st Kishan b Patel 44

Shadab Khan c Dube b Varma 14

Mohammad Nawaz c Dube b K. Yadav 4

Faheem Ashraf c Singh b Chakravarthy 10

Shaheen Shah Afridi not out 23

Abrar Ahmed lbw b Varun 0

Usman Tariq b Pandya 0

EXTRAS (LB-1, W-3) 4

TOTAL (all out, 18 overs) 114

FALL OF WICKETS: 1-0 (Sahibzada), 2-6 (Saim), 3-13 (Salman), 4-34 (Babar), 5-73 (U. Khan), 6-78 (Nawaz), 7-78 (Shadab), 8-97 (Faheem), 9-97 (Abrar)

BOWLING: Pandya 3-1-16-2 (1w), Bumrah 2-0-17-2 (1w), Patel 4-0-29-2, Chakravarthy 3-0-17-2, K. Yadav 3-0-14-1 (1w), Varma 2-0-11-1, Singh 1-0-9-0

RESULT: India won by 61 runs.

MAN-OF-THE-MATCH: Ishan Kishan.

Published in Dawn, February 16th, 2026