India Qualify for Super 8s as Pakistan Collapse Against Indian Spinners
Ishan Kishan was the star of the big India vs Pakistan match in Colombo. India, the defending champions, defeated Pakistan by 61 runs and reached the Super 8 stage of the 2026 T20 World Cup.
The pitch helped spin bowlers, and Pakistan even used six spinners, which is a World Cup record. But Kishan played a brilliant innings, scoring 77 runs off just 40 balls. His knock helped India post a strong total of 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 the India team didn’t go well. He was kept quiet in the first over by Pakistan captain Salman Agha and then mistimed a shot and got caught at mid-on. But that was Pakistan’s only success in the PowerPlay, which was otherwise fully controlled by Ishan 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 attacking innings finally ended when Saim Ayub bowled a slower delivery that Ishan Kishan failed to hit, and the ball crashed into the stumps. After Kishan got out, India’s scoring rate slowed down noticeably. 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.
Ishan Kishan Powers India into Super 8
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 tried to fight back with several boundaries, but Axar Patel dismissed Babar Azam, making things worse for Pakistan. India then kept the pressure on with spin bowling, as Varun Chakaravarthy, Kuldeep Yadav and Axar bowled tightly and didn’t allow Pakistan to score freely. 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.
