Abhishek Sharma smashed a blistering 61 off 28 balls before being dismissed by Arafat Minhas as India reached 133-4 after 14 overs against Pakistan in the Asian Games men’s cricket final at the Korogi Sports Park on Saturday.

The left-hander struck three fours and seven sixes at a strike rate of 217.85 before Arafat had him stumped by Usman Khan in the eighth over, ending an explosive innings that had threatened to put India in complete control.

Arafat then struck again in the 14th over, bowling Ishan Kishan for 20 off 18 balls as the ball turned sharply to clip the top of off stump. He had taken 2-25 from three overs.

India had raced to 81-2 in the six-over powerplay, with Vaibhav Sooryavanshi having made 15 off nine before he was caught behind attempting to reverse-sweep Saim Ayub. Sanju Samson was then dismissed by Ahmed Daniyal.

Shreyas Iyer was unbeaten on 21 off 23 balls at the end of the 14th over, with Tilak Varma on two.

Pakistan tightened their bowling after the drinks break, with India scoring only 30 runs between the 10th and 14th overs after reaching 103-3 at the end of nine.

India won the toss and elected to bat first, with Pakistan seeking their first men’s cricket gold at the Asian Games. India are bidding to retain the title they won in Hangzhou three years ago.

Teams:

India: Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson (wk), Shreyas Iyer (c), Ishan Kishan, Tilak Varma, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Ravi Bishnoi, Jasprit Bumrah.

Pakistan: Sahibzada Farhan (c), Maaz Sadaqat, Usman Khan (wk), Saim Ayub, Hasan Nawaz, Abdul Samad, Arafat Minhas, Ahmed Daniyal, Saad Masood, Abrar Ahmed, Sufyan Moqim.