Pakistan outplayed us in Dubai – Virat Kohli

Afridi’s impressive burst of two quick wickets put India on the back foot from the onset. Kohli and Rishabh Pant (39) tried briefly to unsettle the attack with Pant hitting two sixes before he skied a catch to Shadab Khan (1-22) while attempting a sweep in the 13th over.

Pakistan’s bowlers — especially Haris Rauf and Afridi — varied their pace intelligently in the death overs that didn’t allow even batting maestro Kohli to accelerate. Kohli was finally undone by Afridi’s slower bouncer in the penultimate over as he top-edged a catch to Rizwan behind the stumps.

Babar and Rizwan were hardly troubled by either the pace of Jasprit Bumrah or the two spinners in a perfectly orchestrated run chase with the wet ball coming onto the bat nicely.

Babar reached his half-century in style by lofting spinner Varun Chakravarthy over midwicket for a six before Rizwan raised his fifty with a pulled four off Bumrah in the 15th over.

Rizwan stamped Pakistan’s supremacy in style by clobbering six and two boundaries off Mohammed Shami and then finished off the game in the same over by scampering for two runs.

It was Pakistan’s first-ever victory by 10 wickets against any opposition in a T20 while India also faced the ignominy of losing by such a margin for the first time.

The victory was Pakistan’s first win against India in a T20 World Cup which dates back to 2007 when India won the inaugural tournament by beating Pakistan in the final. Pakistan won the 2009 edition.

“Some quality bowling from Pakistan didn’t let us get off the blocks,” Kohli said, while admitting Pakistan outplayed his team.

“When you lose three early wickets it’s very difficult to come back, especially when you know the dew is coming. We’re certainly not a team that presses the panic button, it’s the start of the tournament, not the end.”

New Zealand, Afghanistan, Scotland and Namibia are the other teams in the group.