Abhishek Sharma was brutal and beautiful in equal measure during his scintillating 74 as India made a tricky chase look comfortable, winning an ill-tempered Super 4 contest of the Asia Cup against Pakistan by six wickets in Dubai on Sunday.
Left-handed Abhishek, who got 30-plus knocks in all the group league games, hit six fours and five sixes in his 39-ball knock.
As he was dismissed trying to hit his sixth maximum, it left everyone in a daze and still yearning for more.
If Shivam Dube's double blows in the Pakistan innings' back-10 opened the game for India, Abhishek and his best buddy Shubman Gill (47 off 28 balls) set up the chase of 172 with a 105-run opening stand.
The inseparable duo, who had been playing together since their Punjab U-12 days, sent the bowlers on a leather hunt.
It started with a hooked six by Abhishek off the very first delivery from Shaheen Shah Afridi (0/40 in 3.5 overs) as he picked wrist spinner Abrar Ahmed for special treatment, sending him for four more maximums.
Gill, who had a poor first 10 days of the tournament, was finally in his elements and was severe on pacers and spinners alike.
But the lofted drive over extra cover off Afridi, would be remembered for a long time.
The match didn't end without its share of skirmishes and every time it was Pakistani players, who started it but Indians, who finished it.
After being hit for a boundary, Afridi had a word for Gill, who showed him where the ball went.
Similarly when ill-tempered Haris Rauf was given a belt treatment by Abhishek, he tried to get into a physical altercation only to be stopped by the umpires as Gautam Gambhir sent three of his reserves to diffuse the situation.
Rauf, who was looking for a confrontation, didn't stop there.
After removing Indian skipper Suryakumar Yadav cheaply, the fast bowler celebrated with a gesture of flying a fighter aircraft, trying to add fuel to the fire.
After that, wherever Rauf was positioned the field, Indian fans would chant "Kohliiii Kohliii" rubbing it in about those two iconic sixes the Indian talisman hit at the MCG during a T20 World Cup game in 2022.
Tilak Varma (30 not out off 19 balls) ensured that after a mini-collapse, that there were no more twists in the tale, finishing the chase with utmost calm in 18.5 overs.
Tilak and Hardik Pandya (7 not out) walked off the ground without shaking hands with opposition players in continuation of the ‘No Handshake Policy.’ It may be recalled that skipper Suryakumar too did not shake hands with his counterpart Salman Agha during the toss earlier in the night.
Earlier, Dube turned out to be an unlikely bowling hero as India bowlers were better at the back-10 after a listless front-10 even as Pakistan managed a competitive 171 for 5 after being put into bat.
Stylish right-handed opener Sahibzada Farhan headlined the Pakistan innings with an attractive 58 off 45 balls as Kuldeep Yadav's dropped catch off Varun Chakravarthy's bowling turned out to be costly.
However, Pakistan after a brilliant front-10 in which they scored 91 for 1 riding on a 72-run stand between Sahibzada and Saim Ayub (21 off 17 balls), tapered off during back-10 managing 80 runs for the loss of four wickets.
Once the back-10 started after the drinks break, Indian bowlers had a better control rate as Dube (2/33 in 4 overs) struck a couple of crucial blows which could prove to be game changer in the final context of the match.
First was a heavy ball that forced Ayub to go for a 'Nataraja' (one-legged) pull-shot but was brilliantly snaffled by Abhishek, who sprinted from the deep and took a superb diving catch inches off the ground.
While Hussain Talat, the new entrant, failed to read Kuldeep and was out cheaply, Farhan, who after a 34-ball-50, couldn't get big shots going as Dube cleverly used the change of pace to deceive and the result was an easy skier for Chakravarthy.
Credit should also go to Chakravarthy (0/25 in 4 overs), who might have gone wicketless but his overs did put brakes on Pakistan and enabled Dube to buy wickets just when the opposition wanted to go on the offensive.
Towards the end, skipper Agha (17 not out off 13 balls) and Mohammed Nawaz (21 off 19 balls) got a few runs but couldn't consistently hit big shots save in the last over from Dube which cost him 17 runs.
However, Jasprit Bumrah’s effort (0/45 in 4 overs) might worry Indians a bit as the ace pacer again bowled three of his four overs inside the Power Play and conceded six boundaries -- something Indian cricket followers mustn't have witnessed for ages.
In the penultimate over, Faheem Ashraf (20 not out off 8 balls), hit him for a monstrous six as the total crossed the 170-run mark.
