Kuldeep Yadav and Shivam Dube combined to take seven wickets between them as India thrashed the United Arab Emirates by nine wickets, in their opening fixture of the 2025 Asia Cup, at the Dubai International Stadium. India chased down the modest target of 58 well within the powerplay.
The UAE, who were inserted into bat, made a decent start. Alishan Sharafu esayed a cut stroke off Hardik Pandya and then played the inside-out loft while facing Axar Patel. However, once he was castled by a yorker from Jasprit Bumrah, they never really recovered. Varun Chakaravarthy picked up the second scalp by sending Muhammad Zohaib back to the hut.
Kuldeep then took over by ripping through the heart of the batting unit. He removed Muhammad Waseem with the stock delivery and then cleaned up Harshit Kaushik with the googly. Shivam Dube too joined the party by snuffing out Asif Khan with a ball that nipped away. By the end of that over, Dube had figures of three for four as UAE lost their ninth wicket with just 55 runs on the board. It was an indicator of the gulf in class between the two sides.
Kuldeep put the finishing touches to India’s clinical show by dismissing Haider Ali with yet another of those googlies. Only Waseem and Sharafu crossed the double-digit mark for the UAE.
In front of a sparse crowd, the Indian openers – Abhishek Sharma and Shubman Gill – made short work of the chase. Abhishek smashed the first ball he faced from Haider wide of long-off. It was a quintessential lofted shot from Abhishek, with his high bat-lift coming into play. At the end of the first over itself, India were 10 no loss. And by the completion of two overs, they had raced away to 25 for no loss. Gill matched his opening partner’s strokeplay with a whip over deep square leg. Eventually Gill hit the winning runs.
India will next play Pakistan, on September 14, at the same ground. Hopefully, the much-hyped encounter will live up to the expectations and turn out to be a thrilling contest.
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