India vs Pakistan, ICC T20 World Cup: India took revenge for last year's T20 World Cup by defeating Pakistan by four wickets in their first match of Super 12. Virat Kohli played an unbeaten 82 and remained at the crease till the end. Hardik Pandya also contributed an important 40 runs for the team in difficult times. Virat hit six fours and four brilliant sixes in his innings. India won the last ball.

Earlier, on the strength of Arshdeep Singh and Hardik Pandya's excellent bowling, India restricted Pakistan to 159 runs for eight wickets. Arshdeep took three wickets for 32 runs in four overs. He got India off to a great start by dismissing Pakistan captain Babar Azam (0) and Mohammad Rizwan (four) in the first two overs. After this, Pandya, who performed well in the Asia Cup, took three wickets for 30 runs.

Iftikhar Ahmed scored 51 runs for Pakistan and looked absolutely comfortable in front of the Indian bowlers. Spinners R Ashwin and Axar Patel were seen struggling, so the sixth bowler Pandya bowled four overs. Shan Masood scored 52 runs in 42 balls but he did not look comfortable. 364 days before this, Babar and Rizwan had given Pakistan the biggest win against India in a T20 match, defying the Indian bowling.

Due to rain for the last few days, the MCG pitch was under cover and it still has moisture and in such a situation, the fast bowlers were getting a lot of help from the pitch. Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Arshdeep took full advantage of this. Both bowled at a speed of 130 kmph. In the first over, Bhuvneshwar did not allow the Pakistani batsmen to open their hands. At the same time, Arshdeep got Babar out leg before on the very first ball of the second over. Rizwan also fell victim to Arshdeep's short ball scoring four runs, whose catch was caught by Bhuvneshwar near the fine leg boundary.

Due to not being in the playing XI of Fakhar Zaman, Masood's job was to play the role of the architect of the innings. He allowed Iftikhar to show an aggressive game. Indian captain Rohit Sharma handed the ball to Mohammed Shami in the last over of the powerplay while spinner Ashwin came to bowl in the ninth over. Iftikhar hit four sixes in five balls but Shami broke his 76-run partnership for the third wicket by getting him leg before in the second spell. Pandya sent Shadab Khan, Haider Ali and Mohammad Nawaz to the pavilion. Shaheen Shah Afridi played some fine shots to take Pakistan past 150 runs.