India cruised to a dominant seven-wicket victory over arch-rivals Pakistan in a highly anticipated T20 Asia Cup encounter in Abu Dhabi on Sunday.
After the bowlers limited Pakistan to just 127/9, India's batsmen made short work of the chase, securing the win with 25 balls to spare.
Kuldeep Yadav led the charge in restricting Pakistan to low score in the key clash as the two countries met on the pitch for the first time since a military conflict between them in May.
Electing to bat first in Dubai, Pakistan lost two early wickets and suffered from a lack of partnerships until an unbeaten cameo of 33 from Shaheen Shah Afridi put some sheen on their total.
Spinners Kuldeep and Axar Patel shared five wickets between them.
Hardik Pandya struck in the first over to dismiss opener Saim Ayub for a golden duck and fellow quick Jasprit Bumrah sent back wicketkeeper-batsman Mohammad Haris for three.
Sahibzada Farhan, who top-scored with 40, attempted to rebuild the innings along with Fakhar Zaman, who made 17, in a partnership of 39.
Axar broke the stand with his left-arm spin as he got Zaman caught out and in his next over had skipper Salman Agha out for three.
Left-arm wrist spinner Kuldeep joined forces and struck twice on successive balls to pack off Hasan Nawaz (5) and Mohammad Nawaz (0) as Pakistan slipped to 64-6 inside 13 overs.
Wickets kept tumbling, but Afridi took on the opposition attack with four sixes in his 16-ball blitz to push the total past 100 and play out their full 20 overs.
Abhishek Sharma gave India a rapid start as the opener smashed 13-ball 31 hitting four boundaries and 2 sixes before being dismissed by Saim Ayub in the 4th over.
Skipper Suryakumar Yadav came to the pitch till the end to drive his side toward a comfortable victory.
He remained unbeaten on 37-off 47 that included five boundaries and a winning six in the final ball.
