King Virat Kohli hits unbeaten 100 to lead India to victory over Pakistan in Champions Trophy clash

Dubai International Cricket Stadium saw a magnificent script which even gave a Bollywood thriller a run for money with Virat Kohli hammering his signature unbeaten 100 runs knock to help India beat arch-rivals Pakistan by six wickets in a Grup A stage match of the Champions Trophy and book a seat in the semi-finals on Sunday.

Kohli, whose struggle with form was making headlines recently, wrote his destiny by keeping the high-voltage match as his stage to display his charismatic performance.

After the bowlers restricted Pakistan to 241 runs all out, Indian batsmen came down charging and Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer (56) and Shubman Gill (46) displayed their class and efficiency in helping the side reach the target of 244 runs by losing four wickets with 45 balls to spare.

A win in Dubai ensured India a semi-final spot and nearly ended host Pakistan’s chances of qualifying for the next round, disappointing fans who were expecting Mohammad Rizwan and his side to deliver when a major ICC event returned to their home turf after 29 years.

Pakistan nearly out of tournament

Pakistan will now depend on their last match against Bangladesh and a complicated points table if luck favours them to reach the last-four stage of the tournament which returned to the ICC calendar after a gap of eight years.

Thousands of spectators in the dazzling stadium, which is hosting India’s matches of the tournament since the side refused to travel to Pakistan, and millions across the globe were left silenced when Rohit Sharma (20) departed after giving India a strong start at the beginning of the innings.

Rohit and Gill added 31 quick-fire runs before Shaheen Shah Afridi took Sharma’s wicket to draw the first blood.

Kohli came to the crease when India needed a strong partnership and he stitched a brilliant 69 runs second wicket partnership with Gill to pull India out from the challenging position.

With Kohli anchoring the innings on one side, Gill played a free-flowing knock of 46 runs off 77 balls, hitting three boundaries, to escalate the innings, giving a tough challenge to Pakistani bowlers.

Spinner Abrar Ahmed broke the partnership with a spinning delivery that destroyed Gill’s defence and his wicket, ending the partnership that nearly pulled India out of the initial struggling position.

Shreyas Iyer continued his strong form in the 50-over format and joined Kohli in contributing a strong partnership of 114 runs.

Iyer contributes

Iyer scored 56 runs and along with Kohli took India further closer to the target.

Khushdil Shah dismissed Iyer and Shaheen Shah Afridi got rid of Hardik Pandya (8) to give India some scare at the end but with Kohli on the other end of the wicket, India reached the target easily.

Axar Patel (3*) ensured Kohli kept more strikes and completed his century by hammering a boundary at the end.

Sachin’s record broken

Playing 287 innings, Kohli shattered Sachin Tendulkar’s record to become the fastest batsman in ODI history to complete 14,000 runs.

India will next play New Zealand in their last group-stage match.

India earlier defeated Bangladesh in their opening match of the tournament.

Pakistan lost both of their group-stage matches.

The fate of the match against India, one of the most-watched ICC events, did not go in Pakistan’s favour, with the Men In Blue’s winning percentage against the bitter rival team escalating further with the passage of each major tournament.

Bowlers shine

Earlier, Indian bowlers put up a strong show to restrict old rivals Pakistan to 241 runs all out.

India and Pakistan match, one the biggest rivalries on the cricket field with intense political tension prevailing between the warring nations, are only held in case of bilateral sporting events these days, making them a rare spectacle.

Openers Imam-ul-Haq (10) and Babar Azam (23) provided a strong start to the innings by adding 41 runs in the first wicket partnership after Pakistan skipper Mohammad Rizwan won the toss and opted to bat first.

Hardik Pandya provided India with the first break by picking up the wicket of Azam.

Saud Shakeel remained the top scorer for Pakistan by scoring 62 runs.

He hammered five boundaries in his knock.

After Imam was run out, India had a strong momentum shift after Pakistan’s powerful start to the innings.

Skipper Rizwan (46) and Saud stitched a 104-run partnership to pull Pakistan out of the touch position they had placed themselves after losing two quick wickets.

Left-arm spinner Axar Patel dismissed Rizwan to give Pakistan their third blow in the innings.

Salman Agha (19) and Khushdil Shah (38) remained the other major contributor with the bat for Pakistan.

Kuldeep Yadav remained the pick of the Indian bowlers by picking up three wickets.

Pandya took two wickets while Harshit Rana,Patel and Ravindra Jadeja picked up a single wicket each.