Asia Cup 2025: India annihilate clueless Pakistan

Pakistan, having won the toss, seemed to cast aside Shakespeare's old caution that 'discretion is the better part of valour'. They batted not with care but with carelessness — strokes played without conviction, footwork faltering against the spin and a curious inertia that saw over 60 balls drift by as dots. It was cricket without rhythm, a tune in search of melody.

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India’s slow bowlers took control of the stage. Kuldeep Yadav, subtle of wrist and flight, returned three wickets for 18; Axar Patel, unflustered and precise, matched him with two for 18; Varun Chakaravarthy offered mystery in his one for 24. Together they spun a net in which Pakistan's innings gasped like a fish on dry ground. The score — 127 for 9 — was less a total than a survival.

Sahibzada Farhan's 40, scratched from 44 balls, had the air of a man pacing a room in the dark. Only at the close did Shaheen Afridi, wielding the bat with a bowler's freedom, strike 33 from 16 deliveries, sixes clattering against the still night, giving the crowd some noise to remember. It was bravado, but it came when the battle was already lost.

India's reply was a counterpoint in clarity. They opened not cautiously, but like men sure of their art. Shaheen Afridi, so often Pakistan's spear, was met with a flurry of strokes that rattled the evening. Abhishek Sharma's batting was box-office in its intent, his strokes like bright banners unfurled in a breeze.

Skipper Suryakumar Yadav gave his innings the grace of command: 47 runs from 37 balls, wristy improvisations mixed with calm certainty. Tilak Varma, alongside him, lent a quiet steadiness, and together they shaped the chase into little more than a formality. Only the young Ayub, with his bowling, suggested that Pakistan might yet have found a player of future worth.

Elsewhere they looked lost. In the field they were somnambulists, wandering as though in a dream, the ball too often slipping past their grasp, the angles of their bowling more hopeful than planned. The absence of leadership was not a moment but a mood, heavy and unshaken.

Yet, beyond bat and ball, there lingered a heavier note. This was not merely a cricket match. It was played under the unspoken weight of whether these two nations ought to meet at all. The silence between overs, the tightness in the crowd, carried a sense that the game was standing in for something larger, something unresolved.

For the scorebook, it will remain India's emphatic victory - a ruthless dismantling of their rivals. But cricket, as it so often does, told stories beyond the runs and wickets. None more so than at the end, when no handshakes were exchanged. It was a gesture, or its absence, that said more than any scoreboard ever could.