Follow UsIndia continued their good start in the ICC Champions Trophy after defeating Bangladesh in the first game. They then swatted away arch-rivals Pakistan in Dubai in dominating fashion, winning the game by six wickets.
The Indians never looked out of control in the high-profile game and held a tight grip on the proceedings as Pakistan could score only 241 runs in 49.4 overs in the first innings and were all out. Meanwhile, India trotted merrily to the target, with Virat Kohli scoring his 51st ton and winning the Player of the Match for it.
He was ably supported by Shreyas Iyer, who scored 56 off 67 deliveries on a slow pitch and never let the game drift away from India after the loss of Shubman Gill (46 off 52) who looked in great touch with the bat yet again.
However, Kohli’s century was the highlight of India’s innings. India’s premier ODI batter hadn’t scored a ton in the last seven innings, and with his waning form in the Test format, whispers about him being out of touch in ODIs were replete.
For Iyer, though, it was never a problem to begin with.
“I've never thought of Virat struggling for runs,” Iyer said with his quintessential confidence in the post-match press conference.
“It's just the mindset that he possesses over the years. He's always hungry for runs, and I remember yesterday he had come almost an hour before us for the practice session. He played a few balls, and he was looking - from outside, he looked as crisp as he looks all the time. So, I never feel that he's struggling for runs, to be honest.”
The middle overs were the most crucial phase of the game for both sides in Dubai, as the ball was gripping on the dry surface, and it was hard for the batters to hit the ball on the front foot on every occasion.
When asked how Iyer was able to tackle that challenge when he came out to bat, the Indian batter mentioned his strategy of focusing on rotating the strike and playing sweeps to disrupt the rhythm of the Pakistani bowlers.
“I think Abrar bowled brilliantly. It was important and crucial for me to play out that spell and rotate the strike at the same time,” the 30-year-old said.
“I took some time, and then once my eyes were set, I thought that sweep and reverse sweep would have been a great option to put them on the back foot. And I think that worked pretty well for me.
“From there on, building the partnership till the end was important. It was quite imperative in the middle to take the team through and I think we played pretty well in those fields.”
Meanwhile, Iyer also praised how the three Indian spinners — Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, and Ravindra Jadeja — bowled in the middle over phase. India gave only 133 runs in the overs 11-40 and took two Pakistani wickets. The Indian spin troika bowled 26 overs, gave just 129 runs and picked five wickets together in the game.
In fact, Mohammad Rizwan and Saud Shakeel scored only 27 runs, which halted Pakistan’s progress in their innings during the powerplay, when they scored 52/2.
“They [the spinners] bowled tremendously, especially in the middle phase where the ball was turning and also helping a bit,” Iyer said.
“As we know, even in the previous game when we played over here, the wicket is a bit slow. It's spinner-friendly, of course, and the way they've been bowling consistently over a period of time, I think the amalgamation of all three bowlers mixing up quite - with also the experience that they possess. I think that brings a lot of clarity in their bowling.
“It was initially coming on pretty well with the new ball and after that it was difficult to score runs when the ball got a bit old. But if we would have played more aggressively we would have won a bit earlier I felt.”
India’s next and last group-stage game is against New Zealand on March 2.