Dubai: Tilak Varma, the sinewy left-hander from the city of Nizams, produced a heady cocktail of chutzpah and discretion to guide India to their ninth Asia Cup title, following a five-wicket win over arch-rivals Pakistan in a thrilling final here on Sunday.
Needing 10 off the last over, Tilak deposited the controversial trouble monger Haris Rauf into mid-wicket stands before Rinku Singh, getting his first hit of the tournament, sent the Indian fans into delirium with a winning boundary.
Having slumped to 20 for three inside first five overs, Tilak (69 not out off 53 balls) was composed and audacious in equal measure with Sanju Samson (24) and Shivam Dube (33 off 21 balls ) proving to be brilliant support casts as India chased down 147 in 19.4 overs.
The tension was immense due to off-field events leading up to the final but this Indian team led by Suryakumar Yadav and guided by Gautam Gambhir walked the talk when it came to upping the fearlessness quotient in a pressure cooker scenario with stands on a boiling point and fans engaging in fisticuffs.
If Kuldeep Yadav (17 wickets in tournament) wreaked havoc that saw Pakistan lose their last nine wickets for a mere 33 runs, Tilak displayed unusual calm after the team suffered its first top-order collapse.
He added 57 with Samson and another 64 runs with Dube to continue India’s supremacy against Pakistan across white ball formats in the past few years.
The decisive point in the game was the 15th over bowled by Haris Rauf (0/50 in 3.4 overs) which yielded as many as 17 runs.
It started with Dube slapping Rauf through the covers and Tilak hitting a ramrod straight drive before a pick-up pull behind square increased the pacer’s woes. So much so head coach Mike Hesson was agitated that he was bowling the wrong line.
Rauf, one of the biggest reasons for escalating tensions between two teams, was pulled into the mid-wicket stands by Dube with 17 needed off last two overs.
‘Law of Averages’ was suppose to catch up with Abhishek Sharma (5) sooner or later and Pakistan’s new ball bowlers Shaheen Shah Afridi and Faheem Ashraf were clever enough to bowl a lot of slower deliveries.
Abhishek, who likes to hit through the line and on the rise, was finding it difficult to connect and lobbed one to mid-on. Suryakumar Yadav (1) and Shubman Gill (12) also perished trying to meet the slower deliveries early as India were left tottering at 20 for three.
Samson (24 off 21 balls) got into the groove with a cover drive off Shaheen while Tilak whipped a Faheem delivery outside leg-stump into the deep fine leg stand.
When Abrar Ahmed came into the attack, Tilak slog swept him over cow corner for a maximum as the duo added 50 runs for the fourth wicket.
However just as he was gaining confidence having hit Saim Ayub for a six, Samson was out trying to hit Abrar against the turn.
Earlier, a majestic Kuldeep, in the company of a wily Varun Chakravarthy and a parsimonious Axar Patel, literally ran through an inept Pakistan batting line-up skittling out the arch-rivals for a below par 146 for 19.1 overs after opting to field.
Hamstrung by Hardik Pandya’s absence and pushed back briefly due to a solid opening stand of 84 between Sahibzada Farhan (57 off 38 balls) and Fakhar Zaman (46 off 35 balls), the Indian spin troika of Kuldeep (4/30 in 4 overs), Axar Patel (2/26 in 4 overs) and Chakravarthy (2/30 in 4 overs) literally choked them in the back-10 to bring India right back in the match.
From 113 for one at one stage when Fakhar and Saim Ayub were batting, wickets fell like nine pins once Kuldeep got rid of the latter. India got the remaining nine wickets for 33 runs to take the upperhand halfway into the final.
To rub it in, Jasprit Bumrah (2/25 in 3.1 overs), who was having another off day, yorked Haris Rauf and then made half a gesture of a crashing plane in a send-off that reminded one of the Pakistani pacer’s controversial gesture to the Indian fans in the previous game.
So what changed between the front and the back-10? It was the lines that the Indian spinners bowled to the Pakistani batters apart from taking the pace-off deliveries.
All the spinners started bowling slightly slower deliveries outside the hitting arc of the batters and that did the trick. Salman Ali Agha and Hussain Talat once again tried to hit their way out of trouble and failed miserably.
