India chokes again in Final , thrashed by Pakistan A by 128 runs in Emerging Asia cup

 

Coming into the Emerging Asia Cup with hopes of their second title, India A has been badly disappointed.  Team India has faced a one-sided defeat in the final against its biggest rival Pakistan.  Apart from Pakistan's strong batting, bowling and fielding, on some occasions due to poor umpiring, Team India had to face a crushing defeat by 128 runs.  In this way, Pakistan A has won the Emerging Asia Cup title for the second time in a row.

 The Emerging Asia Cup tournament was started 10 years ago.  India and Pakistan fought in the final of that tournament played in 2013.  Then Team India won the title by registering a victory.  Since then, India was waiting for the title.  This time that opportunity had come and again there was a chance to achieve this success against Pakistan but Team India full of young players missed this time.

 The story of this match was somewhat similar to that of the 2017 Champions Trophy final.  In that final also Pakistan defeated India.  In the 2017 final, India would have got Fakhar Zaman's wicket early but Jasprit Bumrah's ball proved to be a no-ball.  Fakhar had scored a century in that match and then Pakistan destroyed Indian batting with their pacers after scoring more than 300 runs.

 

 The story followed the same path this time too.  Pakistan batted first and in the fourth over itself Rajvardhan Hungergekar got Syam Ayyub caught out but only then the umpire declared it a no-ball.  Syam (59) got a lifeline and after that he along with Sahibzada Farhan (65) got the team off to a strong start by sharing an excellent partnership of 121 runs in just 17.2 overs.

Both the batsmen completed their half-centuries quickly.  Manav Suthar gave India the first success by dismissing Ayub.  India reined in the middle overs and by the 29th over, the score was 187 for 5.  After this, however, 29-year-old Tayyab Tahir (108) did aggressive batting.  The Pakistani batsman scored an explosive century in just 66 balls, on the basis of which Pakistan A scored 352 runs losing 8 wickets.  Riyan Parag and Hungergekar got 2 wickets each from India A side.

 The only difference from the Champions Trophy was that the Indian batsmen started strongly here.  Abhishek Sharma and Sai Sudarshan (29) had added more than 60 runs in just 8 overs.  Then there was a controversial decision.  Sai Sudarshan was caught by Arshad Iqbal but replays showed that it was probably a no-ball.  The case was very close and the decision went in favour of Pakistan.

 Even bigger injustice with India happened in the 13th over, when Nikin Jose was wrongly given out.  The ball touched his thigh pad and went to the keeper but the umpire called it out.  Due to lack of DRS in the tournament, Nikin could not challenge this decision and had to return to the pavilion.  After this, however, the Indian batsmen themselves lost wickets on the basis of their mistakes and Pakistan's excellent bowling.

 For India, Abhishek Sharma (61) definitely scored an excellent half-century, but apart from him, none of the other batsmen could play well.  Even captain Yash Dhull (39) could not last long.  Indian batsmen could not make a single big partnership, due to which the team could not challenge Pakistan and got bowled out for  only 224 runs in 40 overs.  Spinner Sufiyan Mukim took the maximum 3 wickets for Pakistan.