India suffered a collapse of epic proportions against arch-rivals Pakistan in their second match of the T20 World Cup at the Nassau County International Stadium in New York.
Two early wickets
After multiple rain delays, Pakistan captain Babar Azam called correctly at the toss and chose to field first. The players were forced off the field after the first over thanks to another rain delay, but the resumption of play saw Pakistan strike twice, as Naseem Shah and Shaheen Shah Afridi took the wickets of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma.
A tactical promotion for Axar Patel
From 19-2, Rishabh Pant and Axar Patel, promoted to No.4, stitched together a 39-run partnership before Axar came down the track to Naseem only to see the ball cannon into off stump. Thereafter, Pant and Suryakumar Yadav put on 31 runs in just under four overs before disaster struck for the Indians.
An epic collapse
A mistimed lofted drive from Yadav saw him find the mid-off fielder off the bowling of Haris Rauf in the 12th over. Two overs later, his replacement Shivam Dube was dismissed softly, popping a return catch up to Naseem. Mohammad Amir then struck off consecutive balls, removing Pant who skied one to Babar Azam and then forcing Ravindra Jadeja to hole out at cover.
From 89-3 in 11.1 overs, India's middle-order had disintegrated, slipping to 96-7 in 14.2 – a run of 7-4 in 3.1 overs. The remaining batters then managed to cobble together another 23 runs thanks to a couple of boundaries from Hardik Pandya and Arshdeep Singh, setting Pakistan 120 for victory.
India's last six wickets added only 30 runs, making it the second-lowest aggregate by the last six pair of batters for India in T20Is. In T20 World Cups, it was their worst collapse in terms of their last six wickets.
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