Openers Abhishek Sharma and Shubman Gill barely broke a sweat as they chased down the paltry target of 57 runs set by the UAE in the Asia Cup on Wednesday. Gill (20) and Sharma (30) dealt mostly in boundaries and sixes as India chased down the target in 4.3 overs and won by 9 wickets. Abhishek would ultimately fall, trying to get a big shot but India had no little difficulty in chasing down the total
Earlier, Kuldeep Yadav didn’t show any signs of rustiness while running through a clueless UAE batting line-up as India dismissed the home team for a paltry 57 in 13.1 overs.
Kuldeep, who had a frustrating time in the UK after warming the bench for five straight Tests, was too skillful for the UAE batters to comprehend, ending with figures of 4 for 7 in 2.1 overs.
Jasprit Bumrah (1/19 in 3 overs) started the slide with a perfect yorker to remove Kerala born Alishan Sharafu (22 off 17 balls), who had till then survived audaciously with three boundaries and a six.
Once Bumrah landed a perfect one at the base of Sharafu’s boots, UAE’s promising start turned into a sorry tale with batters making a beeline back to the dug-out.
The troika of spinners — Kuldeep, Varun Chakravarthy (1/4 in 2 overs) and Axar Patel (1/13 in 3 overs) are bowlers whom the players from associate nations don’t play regularly and UAE had no clue how to counter them. Shivam Dube (3/4 in 2 overs), whose bowling is going to be important heading into T20 World Cup, helped himself with career-best figures, polishing off the tail in style.
Rahul Chopra wanted to hit out of trouble against Kuldeep and was holed out at long-on while left-handed Harshit Kaushik had no clue how to tackle a chinaman’s googly — one that comes into the southpaw.
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Skipper Muhammad Waseem (19 off 22 balls) found it difficult to get going and when he tried to sweep Kuldeep, the ball bounced a tad extra.
In all, the Indian bowlers delivered 81 balls — 13.1 overs plus two wides and UAE batters couldn’t score off 52 deliveries.
The bowling plans laid by Gautam Gambhir and skipper Suryakumar Yadav were perfectly executed by the unit and the Dubai track is helping the spinners and the trio is expected to trouble other teams as well.
(With agency inputs)
