India's Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan demolish Pakistan by 9 wickets

Skipper Rohit Sharma and his deputy Shikhar Dhawan displayed superb batsmanshipby notching up stylish hundreds as India took a giant stride towards the final of the Asia Cup with a comfortable ninewicket win against Pakistan in Dubai on SundayIndias biggest win against Pakistan in terms of number of wickets lost Chasing a target of 238 Rohit 111 no off 119 balls and Dhawan 114 off 100 balls flayed the Pakistan attack adding 210 runs for the opening stand to seal their second lopsided victory in the tournament in only 393 oversIt was Rohits third successive fifty 50 plus score in the tournament with sequence being 52 83 no and 111 no Dhawans is even more impressive with 127 46 40 and 114 One of the most fearsome opening pairs in ODI format RohitDhawan combination were helped by some ordinary bowling from Pakistan with equally sloppy fielding compounding their woesTheir understanding in 22 yards is exemplary and as Dhawan teed off witha flurry of boundaries Rohit was ready to hold one end up Dhawan who is comfortable on pitches where thee is lack of movement played some lovely drives on the up He also pulled with ferocity and cut anything wide Rohits first significant shot was a pulled six off rookie pacer Shaheen Shah AfridiDhawan also gave the same treatment to an woefully out of form Mohammed Aamir 041 in 5 overs Dhawans 50 came off 56 balls with a pulled boundary while Rohit took 65 balls to reach the mini milestone However after completing their fifties it was a role reversal with the skipper suddenly shifting gears as he hit legspinner Shahdab Khan for two sixes over deep midwicketDhawan reached his 15th hundred with a cover drive off Afridi and celebrated it with a huge six and a boundary before being needlessly runout His innings had 16 fours and two sixes Just like his halfcentury Rohit scampered home for a double to complete his 19th ton and on the way also completed 7000 runs in ODI format By the time the match ended Rohit had hit seven fous and four sixesShikhar Dhawan celebrates his centuryEarlier Pakistan produced an improved batting performance led by Indias nemesis Shoaib Malik scoring 237 for 7 in 50 overs Veteran Malik scored 78 off 90 balls and added an invaluable 107 runs for the fourth wicket with skipper Sarfraz Ahmed 44 off 66 balls to enable Pakistan post a fighting totalThe Pakistan innings could be segregated into three distinct parts A slow start where India made inroads followed by solid middleovers batting before failing to utilise the launch pad fully with Jasprit Bumrah 229 in 10 overs being brilliant at the death India once again started well with Mahendra Singh Dhonis penchant for getting DRS reviews right after Yuzvendra Chahal 246 in 9 overs got his first wicket by trapping Imam ul Haq 10 in front of the stumpsFakhar Zaman 31 was set but lost his footing trying to sweep Kuldeep Yadav 241 in 10 overs to get leg before The replays showed that the ball hit his gloves first but Pakistan didnt take a review Babar Azam was runout when his skipper got a call for single wrong as Pakistan were reduced to 58 for three However it was the MalikSarfraz combination that provided the launch pad with their sensible approach during the middle oversThe seasoned duo kept on rotating the strike hitting the boundaries and sixes whenever given an opportunity Malik who is a master player of spin bowling hit Yuzvendra Chahal for a slog sweep and also played Kedar Jadhav 020 in 3 overs well Jadhav was hit for a couple of boundaries in a single over as he dropped short Without trying to defend MalikSarfraz got singles at will against Jadhav prompting Rohit to take him off attack after only three oversRavinda Jadeja 050 in 9 overs after a good match against Bangladesh was flat and Malik used his feet to perfection lofting him straight into the VIP stands for a six Sarfraz who played second fiddle to perfection was finally dismissed when he tried to hit Kuldeep over cover only to be snapped by Rohit Sharma Malik was joined by Asif Ali 30 off 21 balls who teed off by smashing Bhuvneshwar Kumar for two sixes and a boundary in the 42nd over that fetched Pakistan 22 runsHowever there was another twist left as Jasprit Bumrah coming back for his final spell got an inside edge off Maliks bat to get him caught behind His innings had four boundaries and two sixes Asif who looked like cutting loose missed a googly from Chahal to get bowled as Pakistan lost the momentum Bumrah was phenomenal at the death bowling blockhole deliveries at will In all he bowled 39 dot balls in his 10 overs and Pakistan could score only 38 runs in their last seven oversVirat Kohli who is not playing in the series was mighty impressed by Indias performance on Sunday and tweeted a congratulatory message for the whole teamWell done boys What a joy to watchGreat win for us Onwards and upwards ethAcircAcircu00c2u009fAcircAcircu00c2u0092ordfethAcircAcircu00c2u009fAcircAcircu00c2u0087regethAcircAcircu00c2u009fAcircAcircu00c2u0087sup3 INDvPAK AsiaCup2018mdash Virat Kohli imVkohli September 23 2018Also Read Asia Cup 2018 I Dont Have To Prove Anything To Anyone Says Ravindra JadejaCatch up on all the latest T20 news and updates here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updatesThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever