Ruthless India outclass Pakistan to reach Super Eights

Ishan Kishan proved to be the difference-maker in the highly-anticipated India-Pakistan clash in Colombo as the defending champions outclassed their archrivals to prevail by 61 runs and cruise into the Super 8 stages of the 2026 T20 World Cup. On a surface that aided spin bowling throughout the evening, evidenced by Pakistan using a World Cup record of six slow bowlers, Kishan hit a stunning 40-ball 77 to power India to 175/7. In reply, Pakistan's top four combined to score only 15 runs before India's spinners took charge to put them out of their misery with two overs to spare.

Abhishek Sharma's return to India's XI didn't go as planned as the opener was kept quiet in the opening over by the Pakistan skipper Salman Agha, who eventually got him to mistime one to get caught at mid on. But that was the only bit of success Pakistan fetched in the PowerPlay which was completely dominated by Kishan. Shaheen Afridi's first ball was pulled for a massive six with disdain, which was then followed by Kishan and Tilak Varma fetching streaky boundaries. Kishan then stepped on the accelerator further by taking on Abrar Ahmed and Saim Ayub with Tilak being a spectator at the other end.

Kishan continued to toy with the Pakistan attack that kept offering him spin. Abrar was hit for a hat-trick of boundaries that brought up Kishan's half-century and Shadab Khan's opening over cost Pakistan 17 runs with the opener hammering another six followed by a boundary. The carnage finally came to an end when Ayub slowed one down that Kishan failed to connect with the ball crashing on to the stumps. His departure had quite an impact on the scoring rate. The rest of the batting lineup had to really dig deep on the spin friendly surface to graft the runs. From 89/2 after 9 overs, India made only 38 runs in the next six overs.

Ayub, who continued to extract a lot of turn and pegged India back at the right time by picking two wickets off two balls in the 15th over. The spin barrage continued even at the death as Suryakumar Yadav (32 off 29) continued to fight for his side. Usman Tariq, who hogged the limelight before the contest, delivered a tidy spell and was rewarded with the Indian skipper's wicket in the penultimate over but Shivam Dube and Rinku Singh came up with timely boundaries to power India past the 170-run mark.

For Pakistan to mount a challenge, they had to either make the fielding restrictions count or hope for the intervention of dew in the latter half. Unfortunately for the 2009 champions, Hardik Pandya made amends for his first-ball duck by striking in the first over when Sahibzada Farhan miscued a pull. On the back of a wicket maiden, India then made more inroads in the second over as Jasprit Bumrah bowled a searing yorker to trap Ayub leg-before-wicket before Agha flicked one in tame fashion to fall for just 4. After just two overs, Pakistan were already 13/3.

With spin yet to be unleashed, this was always going to be a tough challenge for Pakistan after that start. Usman Khan put up a fight with a flurry of boundaries but Axar Patel cleaned up Babar Azam to pile more misery on Pakistan. India then continued to attack Pakistan with their tweakers as the likes of Varun Chakaravarthy, Kuldeep Yadav and Axar kept things tight. Something had to happen in the second half and on expected lines, it was Pakistan who capitulated.

Usman, their best batter on the night, was stumped off Axar and Mohammad Nawaz found Dube near the deep midwicket boundary. Even Tilak got into the act as he struck first ball when Shadab mistimed one to get caught near long on as Pakistan neared their end. Chakaravarthy returned to the attack to hasten the process and did his bit by picking wickets off successive deliveries. While the spinner missed his hat-trick, Hardik hit the final nail in the coffin in the 18th over. With this loss, Pakistan will have to beat Namibia in their final group game to seal their qualification.

Brief scores: India 175/7 in 20 overs (Ishan Kishan 77, Suryakumar Yadav 32; Saim Ayub 3/25) beat Pakistan 114 in 18 overs (Usman Khan 44; Hardik Pandya 2/16, Varun Chakaravarthy 2/17) by 61 runs