India has won cricket’s Asia Cup for the ninth time with a five-wicket victory over archrival Pakistan in Sunday’s final with only two balls remaining.
Tilak Varma scored a nerveless 69 not out for India off 53 balls, including a crucial six against Haris Rauf in the 20th and last over. Rinku Singh hit the winning runs with a four.
Put into bat, Pakistan had earlier collapsed from 113-1 to 146 all out in 19.1 overs at Dubai International Cricket Stadium.
That looked like being enough after defending champion India’s terrible start to its innings, dropping to 20-3 after four overs, including the prized wicket of Abhishek Sharma (5).
But Varma and Shivam Dube (33) led the recovery as India reached 150-5 in 19.4 overs.
Varma added 57 off 50 balls with Sanju Samson (24) but the game-changing partnership was between Varma and Dube (33 off 22 balls).
It was India’s second T20 Asia Cup victory after 2016, and ninth overall since 1984, across formats.
This was the first India-Pakistan final in Asia Cup history, which started in 1984. The two sides had already met twice earlier in this tournament – in group play and Super Four — both won comfortably by India.
India’s cricketers refused to shake hands with Pakistan after both those games and there were no handshakes at Sunday’s toss.