Click here for crowd figure and match report from India vs Zimbabwe at the MCG on November 6 2022
Virat Kohli scored a spectacular 82 as India beat Pakistan in a last ball thriller in their Super 12 clash at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Sunday, with a massive 90,293 crowd present at the venue.
Rohit Sharma won the toss and put Pakistan in. Left arm pacer Arshdeep Singh got his side off to a dream start- first by trapping Babar Azam (0) for a first ball duck, and then claiming Mohammad Rizwan (4) with a well directed short ball that was caught by Bhuvneshwar Kumar at fine leg.
Shan Masood along with Iftikhar Ahmed anchored the innings with a crucial 75 run stand for the third wicket. Iftikhar hit four sixes, including three in the same Axar Patel over. Just as he was beginning to look threatening, the 32 year old was trapped leg before wicket by Mohammed Shami for a 34 ball-51.
Hardik Pandya then claimed the wickets of Shadab Khan and Haider Ali in quick succession as Pakistan lost half their side for 98.
However, some late blows from Shaheen Afridi and Haris Rauf took Pakistan to a competitive total of 159/8 in their 20 overs. Masood remained unbeaten on 52.
For India, Singh and Pandya claimed 3 wickets each.
Chasing 160, the Men in Blue got off to a horror start as they were reduced to 31/4 in the seventh over.
Kohli and Hardik then featured in a valuable fifth-wicket stand of 113 runs. The former skipper reached his 50 by pulling Afridi for a boundary in the 18th over.
With 16 needed off the final over, Pandya was dismissed off the very first delivery from Mohammad Nawaz for 40.
Kohli then smashed a high full toss for a maximum which was also controversially called a no ball. The star batsman was then bowled off the free hit delivery but it ricocheted off the stumps and went past short third man, and India ran three to bring the equation to 2 off 2.
Dinesh Karthik (1) was stumped off the penultimate delivery, but Nawaz bowled a wide on the very next ball to tie the scores. With one needed off the final delivery, Ashwin held his nerve and guided India to a famous win.