Picture Credit: ICC
Pakistan have been the dominant team in the passage of play so far in their T20 World Cup opener against India at the Dubai International Stadium on Sunday. While they won the toss and elected to bowl first, they have made the most of that decision so far by scalping three wickets within the powerplay overs.
While the first two wickets taken by Shaheen Shah Afridi needed no support whatsoever from their fielders as Rohit Sharma was adjudged LBW and KL Rahul was clean bowled, it needed a bit of brilliance in the field from wicketkeeper Mohammad Rizwan to send back Suryakumar Yadav.
SKY was dismissed in the final over of the powerplay just when he was looking to take some control of the run chase. Hasan Ali was the bowler while he had banged the ball on a slightly shorter length, the ball seemingly straightened a bit which caused it to straighten and force an error from Surya.
The right-handed batter was looking to go for that extravagant shot and ended up with a thick edge which could have easily trickled towards the boundary but that was not to be as Rizwan dived to his right to complete a great catch and see the back of the Mumbai Indians star who had already scored a six and a boundary to make his intention clear.
Check out the video of the Rizwan's catch here:
Meanwhile, the Men in Green would now fancy their chances of preventing India from continuing their winning streak in the World Cups in this match. They have already got a great start and exposed their middle order and a good few overs in the middle would mean that would have easily pulled India to an under-par total which they think could be achieved in the second innings.
Having said that, India are not completely out of this match as their skipper Virat Kohli is still out in the middle with Rishabh Pant. They also have the likes of Hardik Pandya and Rishabh Pant to follow which suggests that a strong India finish is also a likely possibility.