Former Indian batter Sanjay Manjrekar reckons there is a gulf between the standards of India and Pakistan cricket after the former registered a six-wicket win over the latter in the Super Four clash of the ongoing Asia Cup at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium, Dubai, on Sunday.
Manjrekar noted that India was not at their absolute best against Pakistan but still managed to win comfortably. Pakistan had got off to a solid start, posting 91-1 in 10 overs, but India was able to bounce back and restricted the opposition to 171-5.
Surprisingly, India’s gun fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah had a rare off day as he conceded 45 runs in his quota of four overs. Furthermore, India was sloppy in the field as they dropped four catches.
Sanjay Manjrekar said on his Instagram video, “This is the thing with India-Pakistan matches. India weren’t at their best clearly. Just imagine Bumrah being India’s most expensive bowler. He had an off-day so India’s main bowler had a bad game. India dropped three catches so India were well below their best. And despite that, they won comfortably against Pakistan.”
“It again shows the big gap between India and Pakistan on sheer ability and skills. I was happy for Pakistan as they were slightly better, so there was some spark there. But you could see how the Indian bowlers still managed to pull things back. Why? Because there wasn’t depth of class in Pakistan’s batting.”
Manjrekar hailed India’s batting unit for the clinical run-chase. Abhishek Sharma and Shubman Gill scored 74 and 47 runs respectively, whereas Tilak Varma added the finishing touches with a 19-ball 30.
“In the end, with Abhishek Sharma, Shubman Gill and the way the Tilak Varma finished things off, it’s just a limitless supply of exceptional players. So India even in that match where they were not at their best still showed all of us as to how superior they are to Pakistan and what a formidable T20 team India has become,” said Manjrekar (via the aforementioned source).
India will next take on Bangladesh at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium, Dubai on Wednesday.
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