Asia Cup 2022: Avesh Khan’s family celebrates in Indore as Team India defeat Pakistan in Dubai

Pandya – who earlier starred with the ball with impressive figures of 3/25 – scored an unbeaten 33* off 17 balls and took his team home in a last-over thriller of a T20I match.

All-rounder Ravindra Jadeja (35) and former skipper Virat Kohli (35) were the top-scorer for the Rohit Sharma-led side in a low-scoring thriller.

The entire nation broke into celebration after Men In Blue defeated their arch-rivals in what was one of the most watched games in history.

Meanwhile, India quick Avesh Khan’s family also among millions of Indians to celebrate the win. News Agency ANI shared images of the celebration of Team India’s win from the young right-arm pacer’s residence in Indore.

Before the start of the game, Avesh’s father had backed Team India to win the match irrespective of whether his son playing the match or not. “Irrespective of Avesh playing or not, India must win the match along with winning the trophy,” Avesh Khan’s father told ANI.

The entire family was seen engrossed in the match including the kids. He further showed confidence in the team and said, “Indian team is strong. We must win.”

Indore, Madhya Pradesh | Family of Indian cricketer Avesh Khan celebrate India’s victory over Pakistan in #AsiaCup

“Today’s win is an important win. We are very happy. Avesh’s performance was also very good and he took an important wicket,” says his father pic.twitter.com/D9eCxnaWpK

— ANI MP/CG/Rajasthan (@ANI_MP_CG_RJ) August 28, 2022

Earlier in the day, Indian bowlers restricted Pakistani batters to 147. All ten wickets were picked up by fast bowlers as Pandya and Bhuvneshwar Kumar stole the show. Captain Rohit Sharma decided to chase after winning the toss and the bowlers, led by Hardik and Bhuvneshwar, set up the game nicely for India.

Bhuvneshwar (4/26) was at his skillful best and his four-wicket haul included the prized scalp of Babar Azam (10). However, Hardik’s envious figures of 3 for 25 in four overs, during the middle phase, triggered a Pakistani batting collapse.

Young seamer Arshdeep Singh also returned decent figures of 2 for 33 in his first-ever appearance in an Indo-Pak clash. The first over of the game bowled by Bhuvneshwar was a rather eventful one as it included two DRS calls going in favour of Mohammad Rizwan (43 off 42) and a straight drive from Babar.

The umpire adjudged Rizwan leg before wicket off second delivery but ball tracking showed it was going over the stumps. Four balls later the Indians thought Rizwan got a faint edge on way to the wicketkeeper but the ‘ultra edge’ showed a flat line on review. There was not much movement around for both Bhuvneshwar and Arshdeep Singh as they managed to keep things tight in their two over opening spell.

Babar straight drove Arshdeep in the second over, showing the sublime touch he has been in over the past 12 months. Bhuvneshwar, however, surprised the Pakistan skipper with a bouncer in his second over and he went for the pull only to top edge to Arshdeep at short fine leg.

India went in with Avesh Khan as the third pace option and he struck in his opening over after Rizwan smashed him for a six and four towards the midwicket region. His fifth ball of the over was faced by left-handed Fakhar Zaman who decided to walk after edging a short and wide ball to wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik who was picked ahead of Rishabh Pant for the big game.

With the crowd making a lot of noise, the Indians did not hear the edge but Zaman decided to walk, leaving Pakistan at 43 for two in six overs.

Rizwan then shared a 45-run stand for the third wicket with Iftikhar Ahmed (28 off 22) to give the innings some momentum. However, Hardik changed the course of the game by removing the well-set Iftikhar and Rizwan with well-directed short balls — the former edged it to Karthik, and the latter, not sure of what he was doing, ended up giving a regulation catch to the third man.

Soon after, Hardik removed Khushdil Shah with another short ball to leave Pakistan at 97 for five in the 15th over. Number 11 Shahnawaz Dahani hammered two big sixes in the death overs to take Pakistan closer to 150. India took five wickets in the last 30 balls but also ended up conceding 45 runs.

(With Inputs from Agencies)