Clinical India leave Pakistan on the ropes

Pakistan were left to comprehend the very real possibility of eviction from their own party as India clinically dispatched them off in the Champions Trophy 2025 clash at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium. Every Indian bowler played his part as the defending champions were restricted to a sub-par score of 241, which was then overhauled comfortably as Virat Kohli led the way with a masterful unbeaten hundred - his 51st in the format.

India-Pakistan contests - without factoring in for the tournament context - often tend to be a contest as much of mental fortitude as of cricketing skills. For a good part of the last decade and a half, India have been superior on both counts and so it proved to be as the two teams began reading from a very familiar script. Pakistan did win what seemed an important toss given the expected nature of the Dubai pitch - slow and low - but their batters veered the extremes between trying too hard or not trying hard enough and imploded to waste what was a much better PowerPlay than the one they'd produced four nights ago in Karachi.

India on the other hand, did what they do well in these contests - do the small things well and let the opposition work themselves into a frenzy. They were there to accept every opportunity that Pakistan presented and by the end, the gulf between the sides in a contest of this length was very apparent.

Interestingly, it was India that made the more nervous start as Mohammed Shami bowled a 11-ball first over that featured as many as five wides, one of them nearly a regulation take for first slip. The new ball swung for India and in their quest to harness the movement, India pushed their lengths up , even if it meant playing into the hands of the under-fire Babar Azam, who got going with a couple of breezy boundaries. But even without Jasprit Bumrah as well as a not fully fit Shami - who had to briefly head back to the pavilion with some knee discomfort after his third over - India's bowlers had the wherewithal to re-calibrate their lengths for this wicket.

Here, they had the luxury of calling on Hardik Pandya, who offered a breakthrough on demand by drawing Babar into a false drive to a ball that wasn't full enough to be driven. The end of the 41-run opening stand forced Pakistan into another unforced error as the reinstated Imam-ul-Haq went searching for a non-existent single and was caught short at the non-striker's end by an Axar Patel direct hit.

Pakistan still had 52 runs in the PowerPlay but India's changed lengths soon brought scoring to a near-screeching halt. The next 10 overs saw Mohammad Rizwan and Saud Shakeel manage just 27 runs as the two batters kept finding the fielders in the ring while trying to force the pace against off-paced deliveries. The dot balls-count piled up to 95 by the 25th over before the pair finally attempted to break free. The attack eventually came when India had two spinners - Kuldeep Yadav and Ravindra Jadeja - operating in tandem. Rizwan swept Jadeja for a four before Shakeel swept and reverse-swept Kuldeep in the following over for boundaries.

Slowly but steadily, the partnership swelled past the 100-run mark and Shakeel completed a solid, 63-ball half-century. But just when it was time to press on the accelerator, Pakistan were set back by the dismissal of both the set batters. Rizwan survived when Harshit Rana put down a tight chance off Hardik, but India's drought with middle-overs wickets ended in the very next over as the Pakistan captain charged at Axar and yorked himself to get bowled. Axar could have had Shakeel too in the same over but Kuldeep put down a tough chance running in from long-on. But even that miss didn't cost India much as Hardik dismissed the half-centurion with a short ball in the very next over.

Like in the 2023 World Cup clash between these two, Pakistan squandered a very similar position of strength. From 151/2, they lost 3 for 14 as Jadeja spun one past Tayyab Tahir's defences. Khushdil Shah and Salman Ali Agha appeared to stem the rot with a busy 35-run partnershipm but again, having reached 200, when Pakistan were ready to kick on, Kuldeep produced a double-wicket 43rd over against batters who were finding it hard to read him off the hand.

First, Agha fell trying to swipe across the line but managed only a leading edge to point. Off the very next ball, Kuldeep trapped Shaheen Afridi in front of the stumps with a googly. Khushdil struck two sixes off Shami in his 38 off 39 before he was the last man dismissed with two balls still left in the innings.

Where India made quick adjustments with the ball, Pakistan were guilty of not doing so when it was their turn under the lights. Shaheen Afridi, in particular, bowled too full, even though one such ball - a sensational inswinging yorker - uprooted Rohit Sharma's middle-stump. The Indian captain had raced away to 20 off 15 before his dismissal but Shubman Gill ensured there was no dip in the momentum by taking on Shaheen, unafraid to step out and drive the left-arm seamer in the 'v'.

At the end of the PowerPlay, India had 64 runs shaved off the target, allowing Kohli to play in a tempo he's mastered over his glittering 17-year ODI career. He got going with a couple of check-driven fours off Haris Rauf, one of which took him past 14000 ODI runs - the fastest to the landmark. Once the spinners came on, he went about building his innings through strike rotation. His 69-run stand with Gill was ended when Abrar Ahmed ripped a ball past the Indian vice-captain and castled him, four short of another half-century. It followed a sedate period of scoring with Shreyas Iyer taking his time to get going.

By then, India were so far ahead in the game that they weren't going to be pushed into panic. Kohli also ensured that he took down Shaheen and Naseem for boundaries early in their overs as soon as they returned to the attacks. Eventually, Iyer, who was on 17 off 34 at that point, caught up with the scoring by sweeping and reverse-sweeping Khushdil for fours and was reprieved on the way when Saud Shakeel put down a touch chance at mid-wicket.

From there on, it was a cruise to the finish even as India lost Iyer (56 off 67) and Hardik. The only narrative left to uncover was if Kohli would get to his hundred. He got there by slapping his 111th ball for a four with two runs left for the win. It was all too easy for him and India, who are now on the cusp of another semifinal in an ICC white-ball event.

Brief scores: Pakistan 241 in 49.4 overs (Saud Shakeel 62, Mohammad Rizwan 46; Kuldeep Yadav 3-40, Hardik Pandya 2-31) lost to India 244/4 in 42.3 overs (Virat Kohli 100*, Shreyas Iyer 56; Shaheen Afridi 2-74) by six wickets.