Tilak seals thriller to give India ninth Asia Cup title

India blinked.

They were 20 for 3 chasing 146.

Their world-beating batting line-up was panicking as Pakistan came at them – this time for every reason because there was a title on the line.

A collapse of 9 for 33 had left Salman Agha’s men with no room for error and for the most part they coped with it. They got rid of Abhishek Sharma early.

That sent jitters through a middle-order that was upended to accommodate Shubman Gill.

A straightforward chase was going pear-shaped.

And Tilak Varma felt all of this out in the middle. The quiet of the stands. The belief among the Pakistan players.

The doubts of a billion people back home. Somehow he absorbed it all and produced a really special half-century.

Concentrating as hard as he had to, there wasn’t a single moment through the innings where Tilak showed emotion. But once it was done, he yelled, he punched, he made little heart signs with his hands and basked in the glory of winning India their ninth Asia Cup title.

This entire Asia Cup has been a referendum on Pakistan’s decision to move on from Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan. There is credence to the theory that they do not push hard enough when they bat up the order, and the powerplay is not a time to be shy.

Sahibzada Farhan took that to heart and although he didn’t always come up with the goods, he never stopped swinging. A series of slogs took him to 26 off 21. And those same series of slogs – when they started connecting – brought him 50 off 35.

Farhan and Fakhar Zaman were able to put one of India’s bankers – Kuldeep Yadav – under pressure. The left-arm wristspinner’s first two overs went for 23.

That prompted Suryakumar Yadav to turn to Varun Chakravarthy, whose mystery Pakistan have just not been able to solve. As if on cue, he took down both of Pakistan’s top scorers. Farhan and Fakhar were the only two to cross 15.

On the back of Varun’s incisions, his team-mates came into their own. Axar Patel took two wickets in back-to-back overs. Kuldeep took three in one single over. Pakistan were 107 for 1 with 44 balls to play. They were bowled out with five balls remaining.

A large part of their innings involved the batters going for slogs. In the front 10, they either made good contact or just plain missed. So just one wicket fell. In the back 10, the big hits were all mis-hits. So nine wickets fell. (ESPNcricinfo)